The Baton Foundation, Inc.

The Baton Foundation serves the emotional, cultural and intellectual needs of Black boys ages 10-17. We accomplish this through a bi-weekly, Saturday morning program, the Cultural Heritage Program--offered during the school year. In addition, the organization provides learning opportunities for the entire Metro-Atlanta area through academic lectures and book signings, film screenings, performances, and community conversations.

The organization was conceptualized in 2013, following the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's killer. In 2015, the late Dr. Lonnie C. King, Jr., long-time civil rights activist and co-founder of the Atlanta Student Movement, encouraged the founder to consider teaching history to Black children as if we were involved in a long-distance relay race--each one running his/her leg. From that conversation, and the sport's icon, The Baton Foundation was born.

It is important for Baton Foundation staff to help Black youth understand the nature of the environment in which they find themselves. For while it is important to encourage Black children to be the best they can be, and to give them the resources to do so, we also must help them understand the legacy of Black enslavement and ongoing racial discrimination and oppression.

The Baton Foundation is committed to ensuring that Black boys and youth, the families from which they come, and the communities in which they live have opportunities to broaden their cultural and intellectual bandwidth.