Former local educator has school named after her

A former Muscogee County teacher who became the state's first black female superintendent in Buford has been honored by the Gwinnett County Board of Education, which named its new elementary school in Norcross after her.

Beauty Baldwin, who taught in Columbus from 1965-73, led Central Gwinnett High School's vocational education program before she became superintendent of Buford City Schools in 1984. She retired after serving there for 10 years.

Baldwin Elementary School is scheduled to open in time for the start of next school year.

Garrick Askew's 2004 doctoral dissertation at the University of Georgia, titled "The Oral Histories of Three Retired African American Superintendents from Georgia," recounts Baldwin's background and educational career of more than 40 years:

Born as Beauty Poole in 1942 to sharecroppers, she grew up in the middle Georgia counties of Baldwin and Washington. She was ranked No. 3 academically out of 66 students when she graduated from T.J. Elder High School in 1959.

After graduating from Savannah State College in 1963, she started teaching math at John Lewis High School in Ellaville. She moved in 1965 to Columbus, the hometown of her husband, Lucious, whom she met in college. She taught math at Marshall Junior High School until 1967, when principal Eddie Lindsey Jr. was transferred to Spencer High School and she was among the faculty he took with him.

As part of desegregation, Baldwin was reassigned in 1969 to teach math at predominantly white Hardaway High School. In 1973, she moved with her husband to Atlanta. She taught vocational education at Central Gwinnett High School, where she was the only black educator, and was promoted to assistant principal in 1978.

Baldwin became principal of Buford City Middle School in 1980. Four years later, she made history when she became superintendent of Buford City Schools -- the first black female to lead a Georgia public school district.

She told Askew during their interview, "The idea was, if this girl right here can move from the cotton field, the daughter of a sharecropper, to superintendent of schools, anybody can do it."

After retiring, she helped create Hopewell Christian Academy in 1997 and North Metro Academy of the Performing Arts in 2014, both in Norcross, according to the Gwinnett Daily Post. The newspaper also reported that her current community activities include volunteering for Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, the American Red Cross, the Gwinnett Children's Shelter and the Upsilon Alpha Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., which established a scholarship in her name that has awarded more than $100,000.

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow him on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Former local educator has school named after her ."