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.
From the guide to the Richetta Randolph Wallace papers, 1906-1971, (Brooklyn Historical Society)
