LEWISTON – Bates College said Tuesday it has received a $1 million gift and pledge from the Orr Family Foundation to support a visiting professorship honoring the late human rights advocate Benjamin Mays.

Mays was a 1920 Bates graduate and longtime president of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He influenced a generation of civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The Orr Family Foundation was founded by James Orr III, a Bates trustee and former chief executive officer of UnumProvident Corp. The Mays Distinguished Visiting Professorship will support varying terms of appointment in different fields for visiting faculty of national and international recognition, the college said.