Selena Sloan Butler was founder and served as the first president of the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers (NCCPT) to function in states that legally mandated segregation. In 1970 the congress united with the National PTA. Today, Mrs. Butler is considered a co- founder of the National PTA.

Mrs. Butler, mother, teacher, and wife of the outstanding physician, Dr. Henry R. Butler of Atlanta, Georgia, was a pioneer in the work of the improvement of racial relations especially the rights of children. In spite of National Congress of Parents and Teachers mission to protect the rights of all children irrespective of color, Mrs. Butler believed more needed to be done.

In 1919, Butler dedicated her life to forming an organization which would have the same objectives as the National Congress of Parents and Teachers.

She wrote several letters encouraging parents and teachers of color to form a union with the primary purpose of uniting home and school into a planned program for child welfare. Her letters stimulated interest in the parent-teacher movement and her own state Georgia became the first to organize. By 1926, Mrs. Butler aroused sufficient interest and issued the first call for convention. To this call, four states responded and sent delegates.

Her letter writing technique inspired President Hoover to appoint her to serve on his 1929 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection representing the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers and working on the Committee on "The Infant and Pre-School Child," whose work contributed to the writing of the "Children’s Chapter."

Mrs. Butler lived to enjoy and participate actively in the work of this organization for more than thirty years.