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Beauty Baldwin, first Black woman to become school superintendent in Georgia

Her appointment in 1984 was apart of Georgia history, and she was honored by having Baldwin Elementary named after her in 2016.

GWINNETT, Ga. — As a little girl, Beauty P. Balwin would hurry to finish her school work in order to help her peers with math.

"Since I was third grade, I wanted to be a math teacher, so that's what I strived for," Baldwin said.

Baldwin's parents were share croppers. She gained her go-getter attitude from her mother. 

"She was some woman, she couldn't help me with my studies. But she would stand there with that lamp until I got my studies done," Baldwin said.

Baldwin, would attended Savannah State College where she would receive her Bachelors of Science in Mathematics in 1963.

She took her first job at John Lewis High School in Ellavile, Georgia. Baldwin joked that she was the math department, because she was the only math teacher there.

Baldwin would work at other schools across Georgia including Gwinnett Central High School. Soon she would become Principal of Buford Middle School.

During her time there the Superintendent opening became available at Buford City Schools. Baldwin was not going to apply at first.

"My husband told me you ought to apply for that, I said I enjoy what I am doing," Baldwin said.

She wrote a letter of interest, not thinking she would get the position. 

"I knew there was a young man who worked in the system, grew up in the system, would be the one who would get that position," Baldwin said.

But in 1984, the Buford City Schools board chair came to Baldwin's campus to deliver the news that she was the new superintendent.

"And the paper got that. And that is when we realized that I was the first black female school superintendent in the state," Baldwin said.

According to Baldwin, she was welcomed with open arms from most people. But there were still some that didn't want her there.

"Did I have people not wanting me to be a superintendent? Yes, I did, and I had a gentleman who did really want to work for a woman no matter what color she was," Baldwin said. 

During challenging times, she would go to her Bible and read Psalms 37.

"Because it would tell you to do when times get hard and God would never leave you," she said. 

After ten years of serving Buford City Schools as superintendent. Baldwin retired.

In 1997, she was asked by her pastor to open Hopewell Christian Academy. The school was opened for almost 16 years, it's one of many of her proudest accomplishments.

"I tell you every student who walked through that school has been successful," she said.

Baldwin would later open up a charter North Metro Academy of Performing Arts. 

In 2016, Gwinnett County Public Schools honored her by opening Baldwin Elementary. A school that she calls her legacy. 

But, her legacy is beyond education, she is honored by a long list of groups and organizations in Gwinnett County including the Gwinnett County Board of Elections and Registration.

During the County's Bicentennial, Chairman Charlotte Nash announced that the Gwinnett County Board of Election's building will be named after her. 

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