Parent Teacher Association (PTA)

Early Years

Founded in 1897 by a group of elite White women in Washington, D.C., the PTA was originally called the National Congress of Mothers. A product of the Progressive era, the PTA grew out of the fervor of the women's club movement of the late nineteenth century, which was primarily responsible for its swift ascendancy as a national organization. Founders Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst directed the early PTA into disseminating information on parent education and promoting child welfare initiatives such as sanitation laws, child labor laws, and mothers' pensions.

The organization turned to public education in the early twentieth century by promoting kindergartens and providing hot lunches in schools beginning in 1912. By 1924, membership had grown to 700,000 from the original 2,000 in 1897. The PTA network grew rapidly in the early years of the twentieth century as local units were organized around the country and as women's and mothers' clubs joined the association. The organization over these years made a commitment to public education as it focused on building and improving schools, implemented health initiatives, and promoted the functional school curriculum.

In 1929, the PTA revised its program to support the Committee on the Reorganization of Secondary [Page 562]Education's seven Cardinal Principles of Education: health, command of fundamental processes, vocation, worthy use of leisure time, worthy home membership, citizenship, and ethical character.

The leaders of the PTA maintained they would not draw the color line, though membership of African Americans was negligible during the organization's first three decades. Despite the policy on nondiscrim-ination, Black teachers and clubwomen did not join the PTA, but instead began a parallel movement to organize parent-teacher and school improvement associations. Through the 1910s, Black units continued to be organized locally, but without any national oversight until 1926, when club leader and community activist Selena Sloan Butler organized the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers, the segregated counterpart to the PTA.

A Black PTA

At the organizational meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, four states joined the “Colored Congress”: Georgia, Delaware, Alabama, and Florida. With the guidance of a representative of the White PTA, the Black PTA was thus organized as an entirely separate federated organization that would serve only those states with de jure segregation. By 1930, however, membership in the Colored Congress was extended to those states also practicing de facto desegregation. At this time, membership in the White PTA stood at 1.5 million members, while the Black PTA had about 14,000 members. Overall, the Black PTA maintained a larger proportion of men and professional educators in its membership than the PTA.

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