Seeking to Be Christian in Race Relations

"It is probably easier to be Christian in any other area of life than it is in the area of race. Here the practice of the Christian religion seems to break down most completely." These words of prophetic judgment ground Mays's attempt to set down a Christian basis for the elimination of prejudice and discrimination. Reflecting on both the Old and New Testaments, Mays reads in the plain sense of scripture a call for us to live together in harmony and justice. He also draws from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to emphasize the broader context of the work.

Benjamin E. Mays, born the son of a sharecropper in 1894, was educated at Bates College and the University of Chicago. He was a dean at Howard University, president of Morehouse College for twenty-seven years, and the first president of the Atlanta School Board. His other books include The Negro's Church and Disturbed about Man. He died in 1984.