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Allie Belle Mann's name must be written large in the annals of those who have carried the torch for good schools, for better pay and pensions for teachers, and for better cooperative efforts for education on local, state, and natinal levels.
She graduated from the Atlanta Girls' High School in 1900, from Goucher in 1903, and from Emory University she earned her M.S. in 1928. She taught science in the Atlanta Girls' High School and served as head of the department. She became principal of the Grant Park Elemantary School and undertook for 2 years the direction of the city school census and attendance. In the early 20's she fought to bring salaries of women up to the level of those of the men and had the satisfaction of seeing that principle of equality established in Atlanta, the first city of the South to adopt it.
Her work was not entirely within the schools, but through them she had other, wider contacts, such as the State Labor Relations Baord, the Governor's Advisory Board on Education, and the State Welfare Board, working with all 3. From the first years of her career she learned the value of intelligent and purposeful organization, pooling ideas and efforts whenever possible. She organized and was president at different times both of the Atlanta Retired Teachers' Association and the Georgia Retired Teachers' Association, then state representative of the National Retired Teachers' Association for several years.
She belonged to the National Honorary Research Society and to the Florence Crittenden Home.
This busy life of devoted service ended on August 5, 1966. Hers was a legacy of better schools through better organization and well trained teachers. She helped to bring the adult community and its schools closer together. Georgia will long remember one of her most faithful public servants. We of her class who have taught school miss her picture as it so often appeared in the N.R.T.A.Journal and all mourn the passing of our truly dedicated graduate.
