Benjamin Elijah Mays High School
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Benjamin E. Mays High School is a public school located in southwest
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
, United States, serving grades 9-12. It is a part of the Atlanta Public School System and is a Georgia School of Excellence. The school was established in the fall of 1981 and was named after
Benjamin Elijah Mays Benjamin Elijah Mays (August 1, 1894 – March 28, 1984) was an American Baptist minister and American rights leader who is credited with laying the intellectual foundations of the American Civil rights movement (1896–1954), civil rights movem ...
, an educator, author and civil rights activist. The school's athletic nickname is the Raiders.


History


Southwest High School (1950–1981)

The Atlanta Public Schools formed Southwest High School in 1950. The school was a landmark in the city of Atlanta for 36 years. In 1981, Benjamin E. Mays High School was formed, replacing Southwest High School.


Southwest High School athletics

State Championships *1973 GHSA State AA Football Champions *1973 GHSA Boys' State AA Basketball Champions *1974 GHSA Boys' State AA Basketball Champions *1979 GHSA Boys' State AAA Basketball Champions


Mays High School (1981–present)

The high school completed $32 million worth of renovations in January 2012.


Mays High School athletics

The Mays High School Raiders athletic teams compete in Region 6-AAAAAA of the Georgia High School Association. Mays High offers a wide variety of athletic programs, including varsity girls' softball, varsity boys' track, varsity boys' soccer, varsity football, junior varsity football, freshman football, varsity boys' basketball, junior varsity boys' basketball, varsity girls' basketball, junior varsity girls' basketball, varsity basketball, junior varsity basketball, cheerleading, co-ed step team, varsity boys' swimming, varsity girls' volleyball, and varsity girls' swimming. All home varsity football games, as well as track events, are held at
Lakewood Stadium Lakewood Stadium is a 10,000 seat stadium located in the Lakewood Heights neighborhood of southeast Atlanta, Georgia. The stadium is the larger of two stadiums owned and managed by the Atlanta Public Schools system. The other stadium is Eddie S ...
. State/Region Championships *2001 GHSA AAAA Boys' Track Champions *2003 GHSA AAAA Girls' Basketball Champions *2004 GHSA AAAA Boys' Basketball Champions *2005 GHSA AAAA Boys' Basketball Champions *2014 GHSA State AAAAA Football Runner-Up *2015 GHSA Region 6-AAAAA Football Runner-Up Champions *2016 GHSA Region 5-AAAAAA Football Champions *2017 GHSA Region 5-AAAAAA Football Champions *2017 GHSA State AAAAAA Girls' Basketball Champions *2017 GHSA State AAAAAA Girls' Track and Field Champions *2019 GHSA Region 5-AAAAAA Football Champions *2021 GHSA Region 6-AAAA Football Runner-Up Champions


Notable alumni

*
Andre Dickens Andre DeShawn Dickens (born June 17, 1974) is an American politician and nonprofit executive who is the 61st and current mayor of Atlanta, Georgia. He was a member of the Atlanta City Council and defeated council president Felicia Moore in the ...
, 61st
Mayor of Atlanta Here is a list of mayors of Atlanta, Georgia. The mayor is the highest elected official in Atlanta. Since its incorporation in 1847, the city has had 61 mayors. The current mayor is Andre Dickens who was elected in the 2021 election and took o ...
* Mesha Mainor, State Representative in the
Georgia House of Representatives The Georgia House of Representatives is the lower house of the Georgia General Assembly (the state legislature) of the U.S. state of Georgia. There are currently 180 elected members. Republicans have had a majority in the chamber since 2005. T ...
*
Tyrell Adams Tyrell Adams (born April 11, 1992) is an American football linebacker who is a free agent. He played college football at West Georgia. He has also played for the Seattle Seahawks, Kansas City Chiefs, Oakland Raiders, Indianapolis Colts, Ho ...
, NFL player *
Tayari Jones Tayari Jones (born November 30, 1970) is an American author and academic known for '' An American Marriage'', which was a 2018 Oprah's Book Club Selection, and won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction. Jones is a graduate of Spelman College, the ...
, author *
Kelly Campbell LeVaughn Kelly Campbell (born July 23, 1980 in Atlanta, Georgia) is a former football wide receiver. He was signed by the Minnesota Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002. He played high school football at Mays High School in Atlanta, and ...
, former football player for
Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...
and several NFL and
CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
teams * Xzavion Curry,
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
pitcher * Shanti Das, music industry executive, marketing consultant, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author * De'Mon Glanton ,
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player *
Kwanza Hall Kwanza Hall (born May 1, 1971) is an American politician and businessman who briefly served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Georgia's 5th congressional district. He previously served as a member of the Atlanta City C ...
, politician * Charles Lee Isbell Jr. , dean of the
Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing The College of Computing is a college of the Georgia Institute of Technology, a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. It is divided into four schools: the School of Computer Science, the School of Interactive Computing, the School ...
* Termarr Johnson, 2022 MLB 4th overall draft pick *
Walter Kimbrough Walter Kimbrough (born ) is an American academic administrator who has served as the 7th president of Dillard University since 2012. Kimbrough was previously the president of Philander Smith College from 2004 to 2012. Early life and education Kim ...
, president of
Dillard University Dillard University is a private, historically black university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 1930 and incorporating earlier institutions founded as early as 1869 after the American Civil War, it is affiliated with the United Church of Ch ...
*
Bryan McClendon Bryan McClendon (born December 28, 1983) is an American football coach who is currently the wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator at the University of Georgia. He previously served as the passing game coordinator and wide receivers coac ...
, football coach and former player for
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
*
Ceasar Mitchell Ceasar C. Mitchell (born 1968), is an American politician and attorney who served as President of Atlanta City Council from 2010 to 2018. He was an unsuccessful candidate in the 2017 Atlanta mayoral election. Early life and education Mitchell is ...
, former president of the
Atlanta City Council The Atlanta City Council is the main municipal legislative body for the city of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It consists of 16 members primarily elected from 12 districts within the city. The Atlanta City Government is divided into three bo ...
*
Adrienne C. Moore Adrienne C. Moore is an American actress. She is known for her role as Cindy "Black Cindy" Hayes in the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019). Life and career Moore was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in ...
, actress * Natrez Patrick ,
linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...
for the
Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...
of the NFL * Diallo Riddle, writer, producer, and actor *
Fatima Cody Stanford Fatima Cody Stanford is an American obesity medicine physician, internist, and pediatrician and an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is one of the most highly cited scientists in the field of obesity. ...
, an Associate Professor at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and an obesity physician-scientist at
Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...
* Rozonda Thomas, R&B singer of the group
TLC TLC may refer to: Arts and entertainment Television * ''TLC'' (TV series), a 2002 British situational comedy television series that aired on BBC2 * TLC (TV network), formerly the Learning Channel, an American cable TV network ** TLC (Asia), an A ...
and actress * Reggie Wilkes, former Georgia Tech and NFL football player *
Gerald Wilkins Gerald Bernard Wilkins (born September 11, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player. He is a 6'6" (1.98 m) shooting guard/small forward, who played collegiately at Moberly Area Community College and the University of Tennessee a ...
, NBA player for the
New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
,
Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...
,
Vancouver Grizzlies The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1995, along w ...
, and
Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was establ ...
* DeAngelo Yancey, wide receiver for the
New York Guardians The Orlando Guardians are a professional American football team based in Orlando, Florida. The team was founded by Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the XFL. The Guardians played their home games at MetLi ...


References


Further reading

* Randal Maurice Jelks, ''Benjamin Elijah Mays: Schoolmaster of the Movement: A Biography.'' Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2012. * Benjamin Elijah Mays, ''Born to Rebel: An Autobiography.'' New York: Scribners, 1971. {{DEFAULTSORT:Mays, Benjamin Elijah Mays Educational institutions established in 1981 1981 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)