 Batson was the first black woman on the Democratic National Committee and the first woman elected president of NAACP's New England Regional Conference, a role in which she served from 1957 to 1960.After serving as chairwoman of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination from 1963 to 1966, she helped launched the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO) voluntary desegregation program.As associate director then director, she helped guide METCO's growth from transporting 225 black urban children to several suburbs to 1,125 children to 28 communities.