Richetta Randolph Wallace (May 12, 1884 – 1971) was an American administrator, and the first staff member hired by the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

Early life

Richetta G. Randolph was born in

Chesterfield County, Virginia Chesterfield County is located just south of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the sout ...

, and raised in

Plainfield, New Jersey Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City."

, the daughter of Richard E. Randolph and Martha Jane Chapman Randolph. Her father was choirmaster at Fillmore Avenue Baptist Church in

Bridgewater Township, New Jersey Bridgewater Township is a Township (New Jersey), township in Somerset County, New Jersey, Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is both a regional commercial hub for Central Jersey, Central New Jersey (home to Bridgewater Comm ...

. 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.''Guide to the Richetta Randolph Wallace Papers''
Brooklyn Historical Society.

Career

Richetta Randolph began working for white suffragist and journalist

Mary White Ovington Mary White Ovington (April 11, 1865 – July 15, 1951) was an American suffragist, journalist, and co-founder of the NAACP, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Biography Mary White Ovington was born April 11, 1865, ...

in 1905, as her private secretary. 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." She served as clerk of the annual NAACP conferences, and served as personal secretary of

James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Peop ...

and

Walter Francis White Walter Francis White (July 1, 1893 – March 21, 1955) was an American civil rights activist who led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for a quarter of a century, 1929–1955, after joining the organi ...

. She "arranged and typed" the first issue of ''

The Crisis ''The Crisis'' is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was founded in 1910 by W. E. B. Du Bois (editor), Oswald Garrison Villard, J. Max Barber, Charles Edward Russell, Kelly Mi ...

'',James H. Hogans
"Call Mrs. R. Wallace Perfect Secretary"
''New York Age'' (March 14, 1959): 7. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

and corresponded with

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

. "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 George Samuel Schuyler (; February 25, 1895 – August 31, 1977) was an American writer, journalist, and social commentator known for his conservatism after he had initially supported socialism. Early life George Samuel Schuyler was born in ...

in a 1942 profile. She worked for the NAACP for over thirty years, until her retirement in 1946. 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. She performed in a 1928 church pageant, and wrote a historical pageant, "Mount Olivet Yesterday and Today" (1953), about the church's founding.

Personal life

Richetta G. Randolph married Frank E. Wallace in 1914, and was widowed when he died in 1921. She died in 1971, in

Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Bedford–Stuyvesant (), colloquially known as Bed–Stuy, is a neighborhood in the northern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Bedford–Stuyvesant is bordered by Flushing Avenue to the north (bordering Williamsburg), Classon Av ...

, where she had lived since 1933.Kate Ludwig
"Brooklyn History Photo of the Week: Richetta Randolph Wallace"
Brooklyn Historical Society blog (March 2, 2011). Her papers are archived in the

Brooklyn Historical Society The Center for Brooklyn History (CBH, formerly known as the Brooklyn Historical Society) is a museum, library, and educational center founded in 1863 that preserves and encourages the study of Brooklyn's 400-year history. The center's Romanesque R ...

References

External links

Photograph of Richetta G. Randolph
at a table with Arthur B. Spingarn and Walter White in the 1940s, from the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

.
"Letter from Richetta G. Randolph to W. E. B. Du Bois, January 20, 1925"
W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, University of Massachusetts Amherst. {{DEFAULTSORT:Randolph Wallace, Richetta 1884 births 1971 deaths People from Chesterfield County, Virginia American civil rights activists