For African Americans navigating the terrain of the New South, education became an expression of freedom and a pathway to racial equality. Yet white schools within Atlanta’s public education system received the lion’s share of funding, forcing underpaid educators in overcrowded Black schools to teach double sessions where two groups of students each attended class half-time. When Selena Sloan Butler first experienced these deficits as she struggled to find a kindergarten that would admit her son, she dedicated her life to closing the education gap for Black children beginning with establishing the nation’s first Black parent-teacher association in 1911 at Yonge Street School in Atlanta. Butler helped neighboring schools organize their own parent-teacher associations and coordinated grassroots efforts to fight for more equitable funding in education and adequate school facilities. Butler became so successful in leading Atlanta school improvement initiatives that she founded the Georgia Colored Parent-Teacher Association in 1919, a statewide organization intended to coordinate local efforts. As Butler built a nascent infrastructure that connected local Black schools to regional and state associations, she would establish and become the founding president of the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers (NCCPT) in 1926. A pioneer in Black education, Butler created a nationwide network for Black educational institutions and contributed to closing the racial divide in Georgia’s school system.

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