Hometown Hero Charles Mays: Honoring Dr. King's Legacy in S. Minneapolis

By Mackenzie Bledsoe

Charles Mays is a champion community activist in south Minneapolis. Along with being the President of the AARP Sabathani Chapter in Minneapolis, Mays also serves as the Co-Chair of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Park Legacy Committee.

Beyond his commitment to these organizations, Mays is a retired social worker and currently volunteers and serves on more boards than can be listed. Realizing how much he is doing and has done for the Twin Cities, Mays vows to take one or two off his list this year.

“I need to take more time for myself,” he says laughing.

Even saying this, it seems Mays will still be plenty busy, especially this August, as the community celebrates the grand opening of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. playground. The new playground features elements from African American inventors, including a refrigerated truck inspired by the Minnesota inventor Frederick McKinley Jones and a train inspired by inventor Elijah McCoy.

Getting to this stage of enhancing the park was not easy. Over his years on the board Mays has had to fight to keep King’s legacy alive at the park.

In 2011, the group fought against a dog park being put into the community park. They sent out petitions and rallied the community to educate themselves about the park and the civil rights movement.

Through their efforts, the group won, and the benefits from rallying the community together showed. Since defeating the dog park proposal, they have seen the park get the attention it deserves.

Before the dog park proposal, “The park had not been receiving any kind of attention as far as beautification or maintaining,” said Mays.

The support of the community has helped raise the necessary funds needed to build the playground and to continue to add to the park in the upcoming years.

“We aren’t ending with just the playground; we have to set what our next project will be for next year,” Mays said. Current ideas include adding an amphitheater and labyrinth to the growing park.

As the project to grow the park continues, Mays can rest easy knowing his work is helping educate the future.

Mays hopes, “The integration of the community and the kids learning to get along with each other, will continue to highlight King’s legacy.”

Mackenzie Bledsoe is a junior at Hamline University majoring in Communication Studies with a Nonprofit Management minor. She enjoys exploring the Twin Cities on foot, bike and lawn chair, checking out the many festivals and concerts the state has to offer. Kenzie has been interning at AARP MN since February 2015.