40 BECOMING KING his calling not due to an emotionally charged event or supernatural inter- vention, but as a rational destination at the end of a rigorous intellectual journey. King credited not only the example of traditional pastors such as his father but also the influence of faculty members at Morehouse with serving as inspirations for the new type of minister he hoped to become. In explaining his decision, King highlighted a “desire to serve God and humanity” and the contention that he could best contribute to society through the pastorate. He sought to couch his ministry service in terms that would be readily applauded by the more rationalistic white liberal church tradition while not completely dismissing the significance of a call to preach. Morehouse College was the place where King began to flesh 9 out the type of ministry he hoped to embody. King benefited significantly from his interaction with Benjamin Mays. In contrast to the Alabama State College president H. Councill Tren- holm, Mays was willing to speak publicly against segregation. While King was a student at Morehouse, Mays began writing a weekly column for the Pittsburgh Courier, a nationally syndicated and widely read African American newspaper. Mays later acknowledged that the themes of his newspaper articles often corresponded with his weekly Tuesday morning chapel service sermons. Chapel services were compulsory in the 1940s, and Mays spoke nearly every Tuesday to the entire student body. King’s interaction with Mays extended beyond the chapel, as they developed what Mays later called “a real friendship which was strengthened by visits in his home and by fairly frequent informal chats on the campus and in my office.” These conversations often included analysis of some of the points of Mays’s sermons, occasionally resulting in King’s disagreement with some of Mays’s arguments. Morehouse provided an atmosphere of intellectual curiosity that appealed to young King, leading him to pastor and preach in a fashion that would foster questioning and debate. Perhaps as an attempt to validate his educational pedigree for largely white audi- ences, King’s later writings often minimized the influence of his time at Morehouse. The limited mention of Mays’s influence in King’s later pub- lications should not minimize the very significant role he played in shap- ing King’s leadership style and his early homiletic themes. A comparison of Mays’s Pittsburgh Courier articles with King’s early sermons provides firm evidence for what scholars have long suspected: Benjamin Mays had