Richetta Randolph Wallace (May 12, 1884 – March 1, 1974) was an American administrator, and the first staff member hired by the NAACP.
Richetta Randolph Wallace | |
|---|---|
 Richetta Randolph Wallace, from a 1923 publication. | |
| Born | Richetta G. Randolph May 12, 1884 Chesterfield County, Virginia |
| Died | March 1, 1974 Brooklyn, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | secretary, administrator |
| Years active | 1905-1950s |
| Known for | longtime staff member at the NAACP |
Early life
editRichetta G. Randolph was born in Chesterfield County, Virginia, and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey, the daughter of Richard E. Randolph and Martha Jane Chapman Randolph.[1] Her father was choirmaster at Fillmore Avenue Baptist Church in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey.[2] She attended Gaffey's Business School in New York City. She was related to labor leader A. Philip Randolph, but their specific relationship is unclear.[3]
Career
editRichetta Randolph began working for white suffragist and journalist Mary White Ovington in 1905, as her private secretary.[4] In 1912, she became the first member of the administrative staff at the NAACP. She was the organization's office manager; "it was her machine that in 1909 typed the original 'Call' to organize the N. A. A. C. P.", recalled Ovington, of Randolph's involvement. "More than anyone else, she knows the history of the Association and we turn to her with questions of the past as well as the present."[5] She served as clerk of the annual NAACP conferences, and served as personal secretary of James Weldon Johnson and Walter Francis White. She "arranged and typed" the first issue of The Crisis,[6] and corresponded with W. E. B. Du Bois. "It would have been difficult to have secured a more efficient person to do the exacting clerical work of the young N. A. A. C. P.", commented George Schuyler in a 1942 profile.[7] She worked for the NAACP for over thirty years,[8] until her retirement in 1946.[9][10]
Before and during retirement, Randolph Wallace worked for the Rev. O. Clay Maxwell, pastor of the Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem. She was the first woman to serve on the church's board of trustees.[11][12] She performed in a 1928 church pageant,[13] and wrote a historical pageant, "Mount Olivet Yesterday and Today" (1953), about the church's founding.[3][6]
Personal life
editRichetta G. Randolph married Frank E. Wallace in 1914, and was widowed when he died in 1921. She died in 1974, in Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where she had lived since 1933.[14] Her papers are archived in the Brooklyn Historical Society.[3]
References
edit- ^ "Mrs. Martha Randolph" The Courier-News (March 18, 1941): 2. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Colored Minister Held for Grand Jury" The Courier-News (May 16, 1903): 1. via Newspapers.com
- ^ a b c Guide to the Richetta Randolph Wallace Papers, Brooklyn Historical Society.
- ^ "NAACP Honors Richetta Randolph" New York Age (January 9, 1943): 4. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Mary White Ovington, "A Visit to the National Office" The Crisis (May 1936): 144, 150, 154-156.
- ^ a b James H. Hogans, "Call Mrs. R. Wallace Perfect Secretary" New York Age (March 14, 1959): 7. via Newspapers.com
- ^ George S. Schuyler, "Richetta G. Randolph" The Crisis (December 1942): 382, 396.
- ^ "NAACP Honors Oldest Member" New York Age (January 13, 1945): 4. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Richetta G. Randolph" The Crisis (March 1943): 88.
- ^ Alice A. Dunnigan, "NAACP's 50-Year Progress is Cited" Pittsburgh Courier (December 26, 1959): 33. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Richetta Randolph Honored by NAACP" The Pittsburgh Courier (January 16, 1943): 10. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Yonkers Church Also Has a Woman Trustee" The New York Age (February 11, 1922): 1. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "'March of the Nations' Pageant for Mt. Olivet" The New York Age (May 26, 1928): 7. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Kate Ludwig, "Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Richetta Randolph Wallace" Brooklyn Historical Society blog (March 2, 2011).
External links
edit- Photograph of Richetta G. Randolph at a table with Arthur B. Spingarn and Walter White in the 1940s, from the Library of Congress.
- "Letter from Richetta G. Randolph to W. E. B. Du Bois, January 20, 1925" W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, University of Massachusetts Amherst.