Neil A. Butler (1927/1928 – June 14, 1992) was an American politician who served as mayor of Gainesville, Florida, the first African-American to hold the office since Reconstruction.
[1][2] He served in combat during World War II and after returning to the U.S., worked as a nurse[2] at Emory University Hospital while attending classes at Morris Brown College.
[3] In 1971, he was elected by the City Commission to serve as Gainesville's first African American mayor since Josiah T. Walls during Reconstruction.
[4] He resigned in February 1972, three weeks before the end of his term, after The Gainesville Sun broke a story that he had pled guilty to a $9 mail embezzlement charge in 1959 (receiving probation) when he lived in Atlanta[1][2] and that he should not have run for office as his civil rights had not been restored.
[1] Despite the prior conviction, the electorate returned him to the City Commission in March 1972[2] where he served during the administrations of Richard T. Jones (1972–1973) and James G. Richardson (1973–1974).