Rockdale County Board of Education honors five trailblazers at 2024 Black History Month celebration

ROCKDALE COUNTY, GA—In celebration of Black History Month, the Rockdale County Board of Education on Thursday, Feb. 15, paid tribute to five community leaders for their historic contributions to Rockdale’s public school system.

The group of “first African-Americans” included:

• The late Sandra L. Rosser, the first African-American elected to the Rockdale Board of Education, serving from 1993-1996.
• Rockdale native E.R. Shipp, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and community historian, who co-founded the online organization, Black Heritage of Rockdale County
• Tolbert Morris, Jr.,the first African-American male elected to the Board of Education,  a published author of children’s books and founder of Helping Hands Outreach community health center
• Dr. Samuel T. King, who became the first African-American superintendent of Rockdale County Public Schools in July 1, 2005, serving in the position for seven years
• Katrina McCollum Young, the first African-American chair of the Rockdale County Board of Education and first African-American female president of the Georgia School Boards Association

Rockdale County Public Schools Superintendent Terry Oatts presented framed resolutions honoring the three women and two men. Family members accepted the resolutions on behalf of three of the honorees:

Sandra Roesser, who was honored posthumously, passed away on Nov. 6, 2015 after a 2 and 1/2-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Roesser was not only the first black to serve on the Rockdale Board of Education but the first black ever elected in Rockdale County’s 154-year history. She was active in both Rockdale and Newton communities.

Dr. Samuel King, who was in San Diego, CA attending a national conference and joined the awards ceremony remotely. King, who is retired, lead the Rockdale school district to achieve adequate yearly progress and be removed from the No Child Left Behind Needs Improvement list and attained the Board of Distinction classification for the Rockdale County Board of Education–the highest designation at the time.

E.R. Shipp, a Rockdale native who now lives in Maryland, also joined the event remotely, thanking the board for honoring her.  Shipp made history in Rockdale when she became one of the first African Americans to attend Rockdale County High School and graduate in 1972. She made history globally in 1996 when she received the esteemed Pulitzer Prize for commentary after writing columns for the New York Daily News covering topics including Affirmative Action, the O.J. Simpson murder trial and the Million Man March. Shipp now teaches multi-media journalism at Morgan State University in Baltimore.

Several Rockdale officials and community leaders attended the event, which was held at the Rockdale Board of Education auditorium.

Sandra L. Rosser

Family members of the late Sandra Rosser, first African American to serve on Rockdale

County’s Board of Education

Family members of E.R. Shipp, Rockdale County native, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, community historian

Dr. Samuel T. King (first African American Superintendent of Rockdale County Public Schools)

Tolbert Morris, Jr. ,first African American male on the Board of Education and founder of the Helping Hands Outreach Community Health Center

Katrina McCollum Young, first African-American Chair of the Rockdale County Board of Education and first African-American female President of the Georgia School Boards Association