Black educator finally recognized for leadership in county schools

Thanks to a request from a retired professor, the Muscogee County School District has agreed to fill a half-century-old omission in its history.

Mary Lee Hall Bussey, the Black educator who led the county’s “Negro schools” for 18 years during segregation, will be honored in her rightful place, alongside the Muscogee superintendents of all-white schools who are remembered.

Judy Purnell, who taught African and African American culture at Columbus State University, made her case at a work session for the MCSD board two weeks ago. Then, during a Feb. 19 meeting, the board unanimously passed a resolution that gives Bussey the posthumous title of superintendent and orders a professional portrait of her to be commissioned and hung in the Muscogee County Public Education Center, along with images of the other superintendents.

Muscogee Superintendent David Lewis noted the resolution being approved in Black History Month is “coincidental but certainly appropriate.”

Purnell credits Bussey and other educators for providing quality education “against the odds” and a foundation for children to become successful adults. She said those who were her kindergarten classmates include a neonatal intensive care professor, a nursing researcher, a colonel in the military, entrepreneurs and teachers.

Bussey died in March 2002 at age 97. She is buried in Columbus at Green Acres Cemetery.