Three members of the Hall County Commission on Thursday made the first donation to an Eagle Scout service project that will bring a historic mural wall to Butler Park.
Ashton Dziengue,17, is a senior at Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School and a member of Boy Scouts Troop 15. He is working to raise $5,000 to construct a 5-foot-tall, 120-foot-long wall around the park that will display the history of the former all-Black E.E. Butler High School and its namesake.
“Dr. Butler is prominently featured in the mural with a film reel spanning the length of the wall that highlights the images from the E.E. Butler High School yearbook photos, dating back to 1962 through 1969,” Dziengue said.
Dziengue presented historic E.E. Butler High School yearbook photos to the Hall County Commission and gave a brief history on Emmett Ethridge Butler.
“He was the first black physician to receive privileges to practice medicine in Hall County in 1936,” Dziengue said. “He attended Morehouse High School in Atlanta, Georgia, which is now known as Morehouse College, and Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He was the first Black member to serve on the Gainesville Board of Education and spearheaded the first Black voters registration drive.”
Dziengue said he is already in the process of recruiting local artists to paint the mural. Once he secures these artists and the necessary funding, the project will begin.
District 4 Commissioner Jeff Stowe gave the first check to Dziengue after the presentation. District 2 Commissioner Billy Powell and Commission Chairman Richard Higgins also made project donations at the conclusion of the meeting.
You can find information on how to donate to Dziengue’s project here.
