McRae-Gaines Learning Center *

The McRae-Gaines Learning Center is an historic educational initiative founded in Selma, Alabama in 1978 by the Black Belt Arts & Cultural Center. The school’s focus has always been to prepare our diverse student body through a rigorous academic curriculum in reading, writing, math and science before they enter elementary school in the public school system. Its mission, established in the tradition of educators Mable McRae and Oralee Gaines, is to “to give our students the opportunity to receive an excellent education ‘from the least to the greatest.’”