“Molding their Hearts: Mentoring Black Boys to become Men of Dignity and Civil Servants”

Sitting outside on the beautiful lawn of the #IRSC Vero Beach campus with my invisible friend, Dr. Benjamin E. Mays…

As I continue reading Mays’ autobiography, the paragraph below caught my attention. It is from a speech he delivered in 1926 , which he entitled “The Goal,” to young High School Black boys in South Carolina. Before I share the paragraph with you, allow me to turn your attention to Mays’ conviction about the importance to inspire and mentor black boys in our culture:

“I accepted the invitation, and I worked hard on that speech because I knew that Negro high school students from all over South Carolina would be there. I knew, too, that these Negro boys needed inspiration as surely and as sadly as I had needed it when I was a frustrated lad in Greenwood County onlu a few years before. It was a tremendously gratifying to me that when I finished speaking, those Negro boys, hungry as they had been for someone to speak to their souls, sprang spontaneously to their feet and applauded long and loud.”

I took a shot of the paragraph from the book: