Benjamin E. Mays was born in this house, originally 14 mi. SE on U.S. Hwy. 178 in the Epworth community. A Baptist minister, college president, author, and civil rights pioneer, he was the eighth child of Hezekiah and Louvenia Mays, both born into slavery. In 1911 he left the tenant farm where the house stood to attend high school at S.C. State College in Orangeburg. A graduate of Bates College and the University of Chicago, Mays was an early and forceful opponent of segregation. Best known as president of Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1940 to 1967, he was described by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as his "spiritual mentor." His inspiring memoir Born To Rebel, published in 1971, is a civil rights classic.