Richetta Randolph Wallace papers
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Physical Description
Language of Materials
Abstract
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Richetta Randolph Wallace (1884-circa 1971), an African-American woman having a longstanding engagement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem (New York City), African-American literary and arts culture, and matters of race relations, racial justice and civil rights. Documents include correspondence, pamphlets and other published print matter, event programs and other ephemera, photographs, receipts, manuscripts, and newspaper clippings. Commonly known by her maiden name, Randolph was office manager for the NAACP until the mid-1940s and personal secretary to Mary White Ovington and James Weldon Johnson. The collection includes correspondence with Ovington and Johnson as well as other NAACP principals. including Walter White, William Pickens, and others. The collection includes a full typescript draft of Johnson's Black Manhattan, with notes, and a galley proof (1930) of the book. Much of the collection consists of print matter, which centers on matters of race in the United States, including discrimination, lynching, justice (or injustice), and civil rights. Other print matter includes programs, sermons, church newsletters, and other materials, principally concerning Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Correspondence documents Randolph's activities on behalf of Mt. Olivet over the years. There are a small number of photographs in the collection, including those of Randolph, of Johnson and his wife in Great Barrington (1929), of Ovington, and stock images of NAACP principals, among others.
Biographical / Historical
Richetta G. Randolph (1884-circa 1971) was born May 12, 1884, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, but attended schools in Plainview, New Jersey. While in her early twenties, she launched a career in office administration after attending Gaffey's Business School in New York City. Her family origins and early life remain obscure, for although correspondence between her and A. Phillip Randolph (1889-1979) presume a relationship as siblings, their biographies differ as to place of origin and early education. In 1914, she married Frank E. Wallace. Mr. Wallace appears in some personal notes and ephemera in the collection, notably in a set of what are likely suicide notes, written in 1921. Richetta did not remarry, and her use of a last name subsequent to 1921 varies between Randolph and Wallace. Because her use of Randolph seems more frequent, that is the name used in this finding aid. In 1933, Randolph moved to 251 Decatur Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York, where she lived up to the 1970s.
In 1905, Randolph became private secretary to reformer and social worker Mary White Ovington (1865-1951). Seven years later, Randolph was hired as the first member of the administrative staff for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She later became the NAACP's office manager and was private secretary to NAACP officers James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) and Walter White (1893-1955). She also served as Clerk of the Conference for NAACP annual conferences. In 1945, Randolph became the Clerk of the Board and Confidential Secretary to the Executive Secretary. She held the latter position for one year until her full retirement from the NAACP in 1946, at which time she continued to work for her church, the historically black Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem. She became the Secretary to Dr. O. Clay Maxwell of Mt. Olivet, a position she held for over a decade. Her involvement with Mt. Olivet was multifaceted, for in addition to her secretarial duties, at different points in her life she served on the Board of Trustees, helped to raise funds, represented the church at out-of-town meetings, and wrote a play depicting its history.
Randolph kept a scrapbook with material from her anniversary celebration (in 1943) commemorating 30 years of service to the NAACP. On this occasion, people who had worked with her or met her at the NAACP sent her cards and monetary gifts. She was knowledgeable of and had close relationships with several members of the NAACP leadership. Chief among them was Mary White Ovington with whom a strong relationship grew after years of working with her independently and then through the NAACP; this relationship continued to Ovington's death in 1951.
Arrangement
The collection is organized in the following three series:
1. NAACP
2. Personal Papers
3. James Weldon Johnson Papers
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of the personal and business papers of Richetta Randolph Wallace, an African-American woman having a longstanding engagement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem, African-American literary and arts culture, and matters of race relations, racial justice and civil rights. Documents include correspondence, pamphlets and other published print matter, event programs and other ephemera, photographs, receipts, manuscripts, and newspaper clippings.
Principal correspondents in the collection are James Weldon Johnson and Mary White Ovington. Other correspondents include Arthur Spingarn, Walter White, Roy Wilkins, William Pickens, and Oswald Garrison Villard of the NAACP, A. Phillip Randolph, and authors Charles Flint Kellogg and Robert L. Zangrando. The bulk of this correspondence concerns Randolph's activities and perspectives as office manager and personal secretary. Her correspondence with Johnson dates from the mid-1920s and the bulk of her other NAACP-related correspondence dates from the 1930s-1940s. Other correspondence documents Randolph's activities on behalf of Mt. Olivet over the years. There is a small amount of personal correspondence, including what are likely suicide notes from Wallace's husband, Frank.
The collection includes a full typescript draft of Johnson's Black Manhattan, with notes, and a galley proof (1930) of the book. Much of the collection consists of print matter, which centers on matters of race in the United States, including discrimination, lynching, justice (or injustice), and civil rights. Other print matter includes programs, sermons, church newsletters, and other materials, principally concerning Mt. Olivet Baptist Church. Most of these materials are identified at the item level in the container list in this guide. There are a small number of photographs in the collection, including those of Randolph, of Johnson and his wife in Great Barrington (1929), of Ovington, and stock images of NAACP principals. There is an oversize group photograph from the NAACP convention in Kansas City (1923).
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Topics
Conditions Governing Access
Open to researchers without restriction.
Conditions Governing Use
Much of the collection is subject to copyright restrictions.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date (if known); Richetta Randolph Wallace papers, 1978.137, Box and Folder number; Brooklyn Historical Society.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was donated to the Long Island Historical Society (now Brooklyn Historical Society) in 1975 by the estate of Richetta G. Randolph Wallace, through the courtesy of Dorothy Vaughan and Ruth Jowers.
Separated Materials
The original collection included an extensive, though incomplete, number of The Crisis, ranging from 1911 to 1971, with breaks. These are no longer with the collection.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The material was in no particular order when received by the Long Island Historical Society (now Brooklyn Historical Society) in 1975. An initial inventory and boxing of the collection was done in 1977 by Barbara Germack. That inventory was refined by Judith Box in 1986. In September-October 1997, the collection was rearranged and described by Tanya Elder, Project Assistant Archivist. As part of that processing, photographs were separated from the collection. In May 2006, Judith A. Burgess conducted a thorough survey of the collection, which resulted in expanded description and finding aid, with additional preservation work for fragile documents. In October 2011, Project Archivist Larry Weimer modified the finding aid to accommodate requirements for input to a collection management system, Archivists' Toolkit. During this processing, the previously separated photographs were returned to the collection. In April 2015, Archivist John Zarrillo encapsulated the article "Lynching: America's national disgrace" (1924) for preservation purposes and placed the document in an oversize container.
Repository
Series 1. NAACP, 1914-1971, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
This series generally consists of materials concerning the NAACP and Richetta Randolph Wallace's connection to the organization. The series includes correspondence, principally from the 1940s concerning office management and Randolph's responsibilities. Correspondents include Arthur Spingarn, Walter White and Roy Wilkins. The series also includes a limited number of a variety of other documents, including Board minutes, press releases, clippings, publications by and about the NAACP, and Honorary Dinner programs. Among these documents is a 1932 report to the Board by W.E.B. Du Bois concerning the financial condition of The Crisis and the 1943 study and recommendations of William H. Hastie concerning the NAACP's organization.
Arrangement
The series is arranged in alphabetical order by document type or subject.
Clippings, 1940s-1970s, inclusive
Correspondence, 1931-1948, 1963-1971, inclusive
Fundraising Materials, 1967-1971, inclusive
Histories of NAACP and Objectives, 1914-circa 1946, inclusive
"History of the Des Moines Branch," by S. J. Brown (1939)
"How the NAACP began," by Mary White Ovington (1914)
"A memorandum to the Board of Directors of the NAACP: On the objects and methods of the organization," by W.E.B. Du Bois (circa 1914)
"The first line of defense: A summary of 20 years of civil rights struggle for American Negroes" (circa 1931)
"No larger ambition: The story of the Committee of 100" (circa 1946)
"Story of a gifted Negro," review of James Weldon Johnson's Along This Way (Baltimore Evening Sun, October 28, 1933)
Honorary Dinners and Events, 1929-1944, 1963-1968, inclusive
"March on Milwaukee" Brochure, 1967, inclusive
Minutes and Reports, 1932-1944, inclusive
Miscellaneous Materials and Ephemera, 1928, 1967, inclusive
National Urban League 25th Anniversary Dinner, 1935, inclusive
Press Releases, 1941-1968, inclusive
Pamphlets and Publications (2 folders), circa 1914-1968, inclusive
Series 2. Personal Papers, 1906-1971, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
The series represents Richetta Randolph Wallace's longstanding engagement with the NAACP, Mt. Olivet Baptist Church in Harlem, and matters of race relations and racial justice. The series includes correspondence, photographs, pamphlets, programs, and ephemera. The correspondence includes exchanges with authors Charles Flint Kellogg and Robert L. Zangrando, and Mary White Ovington, William Pickens, A. Phillip Randolph, and Oswald Garrison Villard. Among the personal correspondence are suicide notes from Randolph's husband, Frank Wallace. The photographs principally include images of Randolph and several prominent NAACP figures. There is an oversize group photograph from the NAACP convention in Kansas City (1923).
A sizable part of the series is comprised of pamphlets, journals, and other print matter. Much of this material concerns matters of race in the United States, including discrimination, lynching, justice (or injustice), and civil rights. Other print matter includes programs, sermons, church newsletters, and other materials, principally concerning Mt. Olivet Baptist Church of New York City. Some print materials concern African-American literature or other cultural matters. One notable item of ephemera is a retirement card to Randolph signed by W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, and other NAACP staff.
Several of Randolph's activities on behalf of Mt. Olivet are represented in the series, among them her work as Chair of Women's Day (1942) and her authorship of a historical play, "Mt. Olivet: Yesterday and Today" (1953).
Arrangement
The series is organized in the following sections. Within sections, the material is organized alphabetically by subject or document form.
A. Photographs
B. General Correspondence
C. Individuals: Correspondence, Clippings and Publications
D. Personal Papers
E. Pamphlets
F. Church-Related Papers
Section A. Photographs
Photographs, circa 1920s-1930s, inclusive
Oversize Photographs, 1922-1923, inclusive
General
Includes a group photograph from the NAACP convention in Kansas City (1923). This image (though not this copy) was used in the NAACP's publication NAACP: celebrating a century: 100 years in pictures (page 63). There is also a set of six images of NAACP principals (1922).
Section B. General Correspondence
A-L, 1912-1970, inclusive
M-Z, 1913-1970, inclusive
Section C. Individuals: Correspondence, Clippings, and Publications
Carter, Norman, 1930s, inclusive
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1964, 1968, inclusive
Lindsay, John, 1965, inclusive
Ovington, Mary White, 1931-1951, inclusive
Powell, Sr., Adam Clayton, Abyssinian Baptist Church, and John Haynes Holmes, 1910-1932, inclusive
Randolph, A. Phillip, 1940-1959, inclusive
Waldren, Nathan, 1963-1965, inclusive
White, Walter and Roy Wilkins, 1943-1955, inclusive
Section D. Personal Papers
Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration, 1969, inclusive
Clippings, 1910-1970s, inclusive
DeSoto Car, 1936-1940, inclusive
Ephemera, 1907-1955, inclusive
General
Includes a farewell card (1945) to Randolph signed by W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Walter White, Roy Wilkins, and others.
Manuscripts, 1906, 1911
General
Includes a Christmas Greeting to the guests of the Hotel Maceo (1906) and a program for a "race drama," The Struggle, performed at the Berkeley Theatre, NYC.
Personal Records, Memberships and Paycheck Stubs, 1948-1949, 1970, inclusive
Scrapbook, 1914-1949, inclusive
The Secret Place Subscriptions, 1964-1971, inclusive
Section E. Pamphlets
Black Education in America, circa 1936-1939, inclusive
"Racial inequalities in education," NAACP (1938)
"Anti-Negro propaganda in school textbooks" (1939)
"The color line in our public school," by Harlan E. Glazier (circa 1936)
Black University Publications, 1924-1958, inclusive
Fisk Herald, vol. 33, no. 1 (1924)
Lincoln University, School of Journalism Bulletin, vol. 18, no. 3 (1942)
Spellman Messenger, vol. 74, no. 4 (1958)
Miscellaneous Pamphlets, 1921-1946, inclusive
"Calendars for 200 years, 1776-1976" (1941)
"Independence Hall," Bulletins Nos. 3, 4, 5 (1923)
"Program of the first meeting of the Negro Sanhedrin All Race Conference" (1924)
"A statement from Governor Hugh M. Dorsey as to the Negro in Georgia" (1921)
"Story of Woodrow Wilson," by David Loth (1944)
"William Penn's advice to his children," Friends Council on Education (1944)
"The world at the crossroads," World Citizens Association (1946)
"Negro Playwrights Co. Inc." (1940)
"Argument of Clarence Darrow in the case of Matthew Sweet," NAACP, 1927
Discrimination in World Wars, circa 1936-1945, inclusive
"It's our country, too: The Negro demands the right to be allowed to fight for It," by Walter White (1940)
"Mutiny? The real story of how the Navy branded. . .," NAACP (1945)
"On clipped wings: The story of Jim Crow in the Army Air Corps," by William H. Hastie (1943)
"Preserve the Olympic ideal: A statement of the case against participation in the Olympic Games at Berlin," Committee on Fair Play in Sports, (circa 1936)
"The war's greatest scandal! The story of Jim Crow in uniform," by Dwight and Nancy Macdonald (circa 1943)
DuBois, W.E.B., 1924-1966, inclusive
Debate: "Shall the Negro be encouraged to seek cultural equality?" by Du Bois and Lothrop Stoddard (1929)
Program from dinner in honor of Du Bois (1924)
Johnson, James Weldon, 1918-1926, inclusive
"American Negro spirituals" (1926)
"Changing status of Negro labor" (1918)
"Conquest of Haiti," reprints from The Nation (1920)
"Self-Determining Haiti" (1920)
Lynching in the United States, 1919, 1940, inclusive
"Can the states stop lynching?" NAACP (circa 1937)
"A federal law to curb lynching," NAACP (circa 1934)
"Fight against lynching," NAACP (1919)
"Lynchings and what they mean," Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching (circa 1931)
"Lynching goes underground" (1940)
"Memorandum brief for the Attorney General of the United States in re: prosecution of R.L. Shamblin, Sheriff of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama...," NAACP (1933)
"Plight of Tuscaloosa," Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching (1933)
"Thirty years of lynching in the United States, 1889-1918," NAACP (1919)
Reply Brief for Plaintiff-in-Error in re: L.A. Nixon v. C.C. Herndon and Charles Porras, 1926, inclusive
Outlines for Literature Courses, 1928-1931, inclusive
"Creative reading: A course in current literature," edited by Robert E. Rogers (1928)
"Outline for the study of the poetry of American Negroes," by Sterling A. Brown (1931)
Racial Justice in America, 1922-1956, inclusive
"The Arkansas cases," NAACP (1922)
"Black justice," ACLU (1931)
"Black man and white ladyship: An anniversary," by Nancy Cunard (1931)
"The business girl looks at the Negro world," by Frances Harriet Williams (1937)
"Challenge of the disenfranchised: A plea for the enforcement of the 15th amendment," American Negro Academy (1924)
"Dabney enters heaven," by Mary D. Brite (1931)
"Legislation on discrimination in housing," State of New York (1956)
"Let's be honest about democracy," NAACP (1939)
"March on Washington...one year After," by Albert Parker (1942)
"Negro press hits back," by Roy Wilkins (1943)
"The Negro wants full equality," by Roy Wilkins (1944)
"An open letter to the City Council of Oberlin and the respectable citizens: The Robinson-Freed case: Was justice miscarried" (1927)
"Savage civilization," by A.R. Schooler (1926)
"White hypocrisy and black lethargy," by Snow F. Grigsby (1937)
"Will the education of the Negro solve the race problem?" by Elsie M. Horsey (1922)
Scottsboro Case, 1931-circa 1937, inclusive
"Scottsboro," by Clarence Darrow (1932)
"The Scottsboro case," NAACP (1931)
"Scottsboro limited," by Langston Hughes (1932)
"Scottsboro: A record of a broken promise...," Scottsboro Defense Committee (1937)
Writings, Poems and Narratives, 1912-1956, inclusive
Black Opals: Hail Negro Youth, vol. 1, no. 3 (1928)
Double Dealer, vol. 7, no. 39 (1924)
"Cavalcade of the American Negro," Illinois Writer's Project (1940)
"Montgomery, Alabama; Money, Mississippi; and other places: A pamphlet in poetry," by Eve Merriam (1956)
"Power of womanhood: A speech," by Joseph Wellington (1912)
"Selected writings of James Hardy Dillard" (1932)
Section F. Church-Related Papers
Anniversary Plays (Mt. Olivet Baptist), 1928, 1953, inclusive
Clippings, Pastor Hayes' Resignation, 1933, inclusive
Correspondence, Mt. Olivet, 1923-1971, inclusive
Dedication Programme and Bylaws, 1920, 1925, inclusive
Pageant and Directory, 1951-1952, inclusive
Mt. Olivet church meeting notes; announcements of the Baptist Young People's Union, 1911-1918, inclusive
"Mt. Olivet: Yesterday and Today: A Panorama in Five Acts," by Richetta G. Wallace, 1953, inclusive
"Mt. Olivet: Yesterday and Today," typescript and notes, circa 1953, inclusive
Pamphlets, Mt. Olivet, 1912, 1943-1971, inclusive
"A race between two straits," by William B. Reed (1912)
"Second annual address delivered by Rev. O. Clay Maxwell, Jr." (1951)
Program for "Up the King's Highway" (1943)
Program for 20th annual Fall Festival (1953)
Programs for church services (1971)
Pamphlets, Other Churches, 1907-1964, inclusive
"Church defender," by Diana Guerry Turpin (1927)
"Emotion in religion," by William Thomas Amiger (1917)
"Life work of the late Cora D. Shaw in the church and the community," by Bernetta Carter (1953)
"Minutes of 14th annual session of the New England Baptist Sunday School Convention" (1907)
"Minutes of the 18th annual meeting of the New England Sunday School Convention" (1911)
The Mission, National Baptist Convention (1966)
Negro pulpit opinion: A monthly pamphlet of preaching, 3 issues (circa 1928)
The pulpit: A periodical of contemporary preaching, vol. 2, no.1 (1931)
"'Til Shiloh comes," by Marguerite and H. Gordon (1964)
"Vignettes of persons memorialized and honored by loved ones and friends. . .," National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (1961)
"St. Martin's Church: Book of the consecration" (1944)
Souvenir journal for "The Miracle," a pantomime staged by Max Reinhardt (1924)
"The social value of death," by J. Raymond Henderson
The Pilot (Mt. Olivet newsletter), 1922-1926, inclusive
Programs, Flyers, and other church ephemera, 1924-1965, inclusive
Sermons delivered by Rev. S.L. Johnson (reported by R.G. Randolph), 1909, inclusive
Women's Day arrangements (1942) and other events, 1942, 1946-1947, inclusive
Series 3. James Weldon Johnson Papers, 1918-1970, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
The series includes documents compiled by Richetta Randolph Wallace in connection with her work for James Weldon Johnson at the NAACP and as his personal secretary. The series includes much correspondence between the two from the 1920s in relation to business matters. The series includes a full typescript draft of Johnson's Black Manhattan, with notes, plus a galley proof of the book, as well as one folder of research conducted by Randolph for Johnson. Johnson was killed in a car accident in 1938, and the collection contains newspaper clippings about his death, plus letters to and from Carl Van Vechten, who compiled Johnson's papers into a collection currently housed at Yale University. Biographical and autobiographical material, articles, congratulatory letters, and a small collection of materials on Johnson's 1929 trip to Japan are also included.
Arrangement
The series is organized in alphabetical order by subject or document type.
Articles by James Weldon Johnson, 1918-1928, inclusive
General
"Africa in the world democracy," with Horace Meyer Kallen (1919), "Changing status of Negro labor," Address (1918), "The larger success," from The Southern Worker (1923), "Leadership and the times," Address to the NAACP (1937), "Legal aspects of the Negro problem," with Herbert Seligman (1928), "Race problem and peace" (1924), "Self-Determining Haiti" (1920), "Washington riots: An NAACP investigation" (1919), "What America owes the Negro," from Our World (1923).
Articles by James Weldon Johnson (oversize), 1924, inclusive
General
"Lynching: America's national disgrace" (1924)
