Lucy Craft Laney (April 13, 1854 – October 23, 1933)[1] was an American educator who in 1883 founded the first school for black children in Augusta, Georgia.

Lucy Craft Laney was born free on April 13, 1854, in Macon, Georgia, 11 years before slavery was abolished by constitutional amendment after the end of the Civil War.

[1] Laney worked as a teacher in Macon, Milledgeville, and Savannah, Georgia for ten years before deciding to open a school of her own.

[4] Due to health reasons, she settled in Augusta, Georgia, where she founded the city's first school for black children.

She attended the northern Presbyterian Church Convention in 1886 in Minneapolis, Minnesota and pleaded her case there, but was initially turned down.

[4] Haines Normal and Industrial Institute was a school for African Americans in Augusta, Georgia established by Lucy Craft Laney.

Later in 1918 she helped to found the local chapter of the successor civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

She also helped to integrate the community work engaged in by the YMCA and YWCA (which had separate organizations for white and black residents, respectively).

[1] In 1974, Governor Jimmy Carter arranged to hang the first portraits of African Americans in the Georgia state capitol to honor their contributions: included were Lucy Craft Laney, the Reverend Henry McNeal Turner, and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

[17] Laney's image was included in the 1945 painting Women Builders by William H. Johnson as part of his Fighters for Freedom series.