Honor Ms. Randolph

Randolph, a daughter of former slaves who was raised in challenging circumstances, inspired children to rise above their own background. She graduated from Richmond City Normal Colored School, and in 1890 entered Virginia State College in Ettrick but attended just two years before going to Goochland County to teach — at age 16, a year younger than the law allowed. Randolph moved in 1892 to a teaching position at the Mountain Road School in Henrico County.

She implemented a system in which children used both their minds and their energy. “I believe in educating the hands, the eyes, the feet and the soul,” she said.In each day’s activities, Randolph brought an aspect that came loosely under the heading of “work,” such as gardening, woodworking, sewing, laundering or cooking, using everyday items rather than waiting for expensive materials that couldn’t be counted on to reach the racially segregated public schools. Her students made baskets from honeysuckle vines and simple clothes from bleached flour sacks and sugar bags. For cooking instruction, Randolph at least once borrowed a neighbor’s cookstove, still warm from making breakfast, because at the time her school didn’t have a proper stove. She spent her own money for supplies and obtained scrap material from the white schools for Mountain Road projects.