PTA facts -
In 1897, Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe AppersonHearst organized the National Congress of Mothers to, eliminate the threats that endangered their children.
Birney and Hearst called for action with a meeting in Washington DC where more than 2,000 people responded.
From the first meeting of the National Congress of Mothers grew a grounds well of support.
Birney appealed, “To all man kind and to all woman kind, regardless of race, color, or condition, to recognize that the republics greatest work is to save the children.”
Segregated schools were still legally sanctioned in many states.
In 1926, two years after being renamed the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, National PTA held its 30th annual convention in Atlanta, the same year and location that the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers was founded by Selena Sloan Butler.
After adopting the same objects and purposes the two organizations returned to Atlanta in 1970 to formally merge as one, and Butler has since been recognized as one of the three founders of National PTA.
Because of PTA our nation has:
* Child labor laws to protect against unsafe working practices and conditions
* Kindergarten as part of our public school system
* Federally funded hot lunch programs
* Juvenile justice system so children would not be tried and incarcerated as adults
* Mandatory immunization
* Labels on music recordings to help parents know which contain “explicit lyrics”
* TV ratings in the upper left corner of our screens to help us know if the upcoming program is suitable for family
viewing