Mrs. Sadie Gray Mays was a pioneering social worker, higher education administrator, federal agency leader, and community institutional builder who served for 27 years as the First Lady of Morehouse College. Born to a farming family in Gray, Georgia, Mrs. Mays forged an independent career in social casework and university instruction before stepping into administrative leadership alongside her husband, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays. Over their 43-year partnership, she dedicated her administrative talents and uncompensated labor toward the institutional development of Morehouse College, pioneering holistic student retention strategies and pastoral counseling. Beyond her university tenure, Mrs. Mays was a prominent catalyst within Black women’s civic welfare networks in Atlanta and nationwide, culminating in her leadership as President of the Board of Directors for the Happy Haven Nursing Home.
Born on August 5, 1900, in Gray, Georgia, to farmers Emma and James S. Gray, Sadie Gray Mays developed a rigorous intellectual foundation that established her credentials as a social casework expert, academic instructor, and dynamic public orator long before her executive appointments in Atlanta. After graduating high school, she completed her undergraduate studies, receiving her diploma, she attended the University of Chicago, earning advanced degrees, including a Bachelor of Philosophy (B.Ph.) degree and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree. There, she met her husband, Benjamin Elijah Mays, who also earned advanced degrees from the university.
From her upbringing and education, Gray Mays honed her skills and was recognized as an “excellent speaker” throughout her career, utilizing her public platform to advocate for social welfare policy, institutional development, and youth advocacy. Her extensive work in professional social work, New Deal administrative leadership, and university instruction across the American South and Eastern Seaboard made her a force all on her own.
With the goal of bettering conditions for Black children, Gray Mays conducted vital social work initiatives across major urban centers, including St. Louis, Missouri; Washington, D.C. (engaging in child protective and social welfare services); Tampa, Florida (collaborating with the Urban League); and Atlanta, Georgia. During the depression era, she was appointed as the Director of the National Youth Administration (NYA) for the District of Columbia. This executive New Deal appointment represented a significant milestone for Black women administrators in federal policy, where she managed youth relief, employment programs, and vocational training.
Adding teaching to praxis, Mays Gray had served on the faculty, teaching social work methodology prior to her institutional transition to the nation’s capital. At Howard University, she held a faculty position beginning in 1934. After her stint at Howard, she served as a faculty member at South Carolina State College [now University], where she taught aspects of social work. Upon moving to Atlanta, she served as a faculty member at the Atlanta University School of Social Work in early 1940, briefly teaching before stepping down to dedicate her full energy as first lady at Morehouse College.
In 1940, Gray Mays made a deliberate decision to step back from her independent academic and administrative career to assist her husband, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays in elevating Morehouse College as the institution’s 6th president. For 27 years, she performed uncompensated higher education administration, serving as a primary architect of the college’s supportive campus environment. According to Dr. Mays, “She sacrificed her professional career to help me build Morehouse… she gave it up to devote full time as an unpaid worker with me in improving the work at Morehouse.”
The establishment of the Happy Haven Nursing Home, in 1946, represented the ultimate realization of Gray Mays’s lifelong dedication to social welfare and senior care. Collectively, a movement spawned by Atlanta’s public-spirited Black women began envisioning a modern, fully equipped nursing facility for senior citizens. Mays Gray emerged as the foremost leader among these civic organizers, anchoring more than two decades of sustained community fundraising, planning, and advocacy. Through her efforts, materialized in a modern, 158-bed, $1,000,000 facility located on Anderson Avenue in Atlanta. At the official dedication in late January 1968, Gray Mays observed that “a dream has come true for those who have labored for more than 20 years for a home and tender loving care for people who need care.”
Through her leadership as President of the Board of Directors, Mrs. Mays remained focused on institutional safety and completeness. Immediately following the dedication, she initiated a fundraising drive for a protective fence and gate around the $1,000,000 facility to safeguard residents, who had occupied the home almost before official admissions began. Despite health complications that forced her to reduce her workload beginning in 1966, her commitment to the project sustained her. As Dr. Mays reflected, “Happy Haven is really her heart and I’m not so sure, if she had to give Happy Haven up, that she would have been around today to view its opening.” Mrs. Mays lived to see her vision operational, passing away almost 20 months after its dedication.
Following a 45-day period lingering between life and death, Mrs. Mays passed away on October 11, 1969, at 8:57 p.m. Her mausoleum inscription reads, “She had special concern for the young, the aged, the disadvantaged, the poor. She did what she could to help them.” Perhaps her greatest admiration came from her husband of 43 years, Dr. Benjamin Elijah Mays, whose article in the Atlanta Voice praised her for her role in student success by providing holistic pastoral care, academic guidance, and personal counseling. “She supported the sick, struggling students, encouraged academic excellence, and became a trusted confidante whose influence extended well beyond campus life, as reflected by the outpouring of alumni at her memorial service.”
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