History

In 1988 the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation launched a program designed to increase the number of African-American, Latino/a, and American Indian faculty members at U.S. colleges and universities by providing academically promising students from these groups with mentoring, opportunities for conducting independent research, skills development, and initiation into the academic life. Wesleyan’s Mellon Program has been in existence since 1989, and received its fourth round of funding in 2000. Of the 100-plus PhDs who have emerged from the MMUF as of the spring of 2004, 4 are Wesleyan alumni and 9 are currently in graduate school in PhD programs.

In 2003, the Foundation renamed the program to connect its mission to the societal, scholarly, and educational commitments and achievements of Dr. Benjamin E. Mays (1894–1984), a life-long champion of civil rights, a distinguished scholar of religion, mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr., and president of Morehouse College from 1940 to 1967.