[1] Mays served as counsel to the Gray Commission which tried to formulate segregationists' response to the United States Supreme Court rulings in 1954 and 1955 in consolidated cases known as Brown v. Board of Education.
He later unsuccessfully defended actions taken against NAACP attorneys (although he had argued against adoption of those laws and correctly predicted they would be overturned) and significantly unequal legislative reapportionment.
[5] Mays was a lifelong Democrat and nominal member of the Methodist Church, although he stopped supporting the denomination after it became involved in political activities, opposing the presidential candidacy of Al Smith because of his Catholic religion.
However, the evidence was flimsy (supposedly images captured by her dying eyes, found after her exhumation, a now-discredited technique), his confession probably under duress, and Persons never received a trial.
Mays was fascinated by the scene and mob violence and stood near Persons' head as the black man was chained to the ground, doused with gasoline and burned alive.
By the time Virginia's legislature next met (in a special session) to consider the proposals, even Gray wanted to include what Mays thought were unconstitutional measures which courts would strike down, such as withholding funds from any school that allowed mixing of races.
[11] Mays thought the pupil assignment plan based on showings of disturbances of the peace might survive court scrutiny, and North Carolina did have success with that approach.
Mays resigned his position with the Gray Commission after the Stanley Plan appropriated more money to the Attorney General's office to fight desegregation.
[13] Those were challenges to the newly expanded state ethics laws brought by the NAACP through its attorneys Thurgood Marshall, Spottswood Robinson and Robert L. Carter (all of whom later became federal judges).
Mays thought the Virginia State Bar would bring charges against Oliver Hill, but only an unsuccessful attempt was made to disbar Samuel W.
[17] In March 1965, Mays also testified against President Lyndon Johnson's voting rights bill before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, as requested by U.S. Rep. William M.
Mays managed to find many of Virginia's oldest court records, including some thought destroyed in the Confederate Army's evacuation fire of Richmond in 1864.
At the time of his death, Mays was collaborating on editing the letters of John Taylor who like Pendleton lived in Caroline County, Virginia.
He also served on the Board of the McGregor Library of the University of Virginia, and on the council of the Institute of Early American History and Culture (affiliated with the College of William and Mary).