FIRSTS

First Blacks To Graduate from Rockdale High School after integration

Veronica Lester Flanigan

Class of 1965

Aubrey Web

Class of 1965

First Black to give graduation speech at Rockdale High school

Etheleen Shipp

Salutatorian but had the better gpa to be the Valedictorian

Class of 1972

Dr. Linda Lee Aiken Young

First African American School Principal in Rockdale County School System

Barksdale Elementary School lead teacher Dr. Linda Aikens applied for and was denied 15 principalships and assistant principalships since 1978. November 1988, she suee the Rockdale County School System on race bias. At the time there was only one of the system's 12 principals and none of the nine assistant principals had Ph.D.s and that Ms. Aikens was the only local teacher with the degree, held by only one percent of the school employees in Rockdale. Rockdale Citizen November 10, 1988 and also featured in the Jet Magazine December 5, 1988, Vol. 75, No. 10, page 17.

Jet Article- Teacher's Suit Charges Ga. School System with Bias