A. W. ANTHONY MAYS
A. W. Anthony Mays was born May 30, 1949, the second son born to Charles William Mays, Sr. (deceased), and Dorothy (Clark) Mays (deceased). He was born at the historic Dickey Clinic in Taylor, Williamson County, Texas, owned and operated by the late Dr. James Lee Dickey, the lone African American doctor in Williamson County during those years. He was brought up in Round Rock, Texas. After the early death of their mother in June 1957, Charles Jr., and Anthony were brought up by their maternal grandmother, Ardie Mae “Big Mama” Clark (deceased). After baptism at age 7, he became a member of the Sweet Home Baptist Church, Round Rock, Texas. He attended the segregated Hopewell School for Blacks through his freshman year in High School. At Hopewell, Anthony was a good student, an athlete, and he was also involved in competitive annual oratorical contests held each year at Prairie View A & M College (now University), where the Negro League competitions were held during those years of segregated schools. But, a marked change was experienced by Anthony when he impulsively determined to enroll at the previously segregated Round Rock High School after the summer of 1964 as a sophomore. For two long lonely years, he was the only African American student at Round Rock High School. During his years at Round Rock High School, Anthony lettered in football, as a running back. He became captain of the track team and ran the high hurdles. He, also, was elected as an officer of the Student Council. Anthony graduated academically in the top ten percent of his Senior class.
Anthony went on to attend the University of Texas at Austin. He graduated in 1971 from UT with a B.A., majoring in English and minoring in History. During his second year at Texas, Anthony finally surrendered to his divine call into ministry. He later preached his first public sermon at the Sweet Home Baptist Church of Round Rock on the second Sunday evening of April (Easter Sunday) in 1969. One year later in 1970 Anthony was honored to be called to become pastor of the Sweet Home Baptist Church (his home church). Seeking further ministerial education, Anthony enrolled at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary of Fort Worth, Texas in 1973. He sought to achieve the Master of Divinity degree from this Southern Baptist school but had to cut short his efforts because of personal health issues of hypertension and stress in 1974.
Anthony was later called to become pastor of the Antioch Baptist Church, Wichita Falls, Texas in 1978. However, in 1979 he was called to become pastor of the True Vine Baptist Church, Tyler, Texas. In 1986, he was called as pastor of the Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church of Austin, Texas, where he now serves with tenure of over 35 years. He felt led to return to Southwestern to finish his Master of Divinity Degree and finally completed his work at the age of 69 with a graduation in May 2019. In 2021, he received an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Ministry from the Simmons College in Louisville, Kentucky.
As pastor of Mount Sinai, he led the congregation to respond to the growth in membership through the purchase of three larger church properties. In 2018, Mount Sinai entered into its current facility, the third phase of the project completed in 2020. The current facility is valued at over 13 million dollars.
Along his journey Anthony has served as:
- Home Rule Charter Commissioner, Round Rock, Texas
- President, NAACP, Wichita Falls, Texas
- Planning and Zoning Commissioner, Tyler, Texas
- Equity Advisory Committee Co-Chair, Austin Independent School District, Austin, Texas
- Youth Coordinator, St. John Regular Baptist Association, Austin, Texas
- Moderator, East Texas Baptist Association, Tyler, Texas
- Vice President, Texas Baptist Convention Congress, Tyler, Texas
- President, Baptist Ministers of Austin and Vicinity, Austin, Texas
- 1st Vice Moderator, St. John Regular Baptist Association, Austin, Texas
- Chairman, Pastors’ and Ministers’ Conference Missionary Baptist General Convention of Texas, Austin, Texas
- Current Moderator, St. John Regular Baptist Association, Austin, Texas
- Immediate Past Dean of the Congress of the National Baptist Convention of America, Int’l. Inc., Louisville, Kentucky
Anthony is married to the former Fannie Urdy. God has blessed their union with three sons and two daughters (Mark, Meshawn, Michael, Dorothy, and Matthew). They are grandparents to 15 and great grandparents to 5.