Building Together for Youth

The National Congress of Colored parents and teachers grew from a meeting called at the request of Selena Sloan Butler through the school principal, Cora B. Finley, at Yonge Street School, March 14, 1911. As interest grew, other school units were created throughout the city and organized into the Parent-Teacher Council of Atlanta. A state organization was formed in the lecture room of Bethel A. M. E. Church in Atlanta, May 6, 1921. Mrs. Butler was elected first State President at that meeting. To the sixth annual state meeting held at Liberty Baptist Church in Atlanta, four states (Georgia; Alabama, Delaware, and Florida) sent delegates and national body was formed, May 7, 1926. A number of other states and the District of Columbia soon joined the organization. Mrs. Butler was elected first National President and is honored today as the founder of the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers. Her efforts at Yonge Street School, renamed Henry Rutherford Butler Elementary School to honor her husband, have been well received throughout the country.