The collection contains eighty-six volumes of diaries written by Grady Lee Randolph that include memoirs, observations and analysis of daily life as a Alabama farm boy and later as a school teacher and permanent resident of Atlanta, Georgia. The collection spans from 1931 to 2001, but skips the year 1943. Randolph recorded over 20,000 daily diary entries that include observations of life during the Great Depression, and events such as the Gone With The Wind premier; World War II; The Winecoff Hotel Fire; the integration of Atlanta schools; the Civil Rights Movement; the Orly Plane Crash; the Missing and Murdered Children crisis; the Atlanta Teachers Association conflicts with the Superintendent of Atlanta Schools; and the transition to African American leadership in Atlanta city government. Randolph's impressions of family, friends, colleagues, public officials, and events are pithy and sometimes his observations are caustic. Persons mentioned in the diaries include a wide panorama of personal friends, colleagues, and public figures. An abbreviated list of those mentioned include friends and colleagues Ernest and Jewel Silvey, Chester and Maude Elliot, Ernest and Helen Lumpkin, Randolph Thrower, Liza Paschal, Ruth Rogers,Lula Brown, Father Harry P. Hatzopoulos, Dr. John Alexander, David Wilson, Richard Katz, Douglas Harper, Ruth Rogers, Frank Adamson, Dr. James Everette De Vaugh, Louise Jeans, Bill Richards, and Byron King. In addition, Randolph frequently mentions administrators and Board members within the Atlanta school system including G. Y. Smith, H. W. Cheney, Glenn Rainey, Wesley Cook, Pete Latimer, Sara Mitchell, Obie Brewer, Glenn Frick, Willis Sutton, Ira Jarrell, Dr. John Letson, Ed Cook, Sr., Ed Cook, Jr., Jarvis Barnes, John Martin, Ruth Satterfield, Rual Stephens, Roger Derthick, Jarvis Barnes, John Martin, and Ruth Satterfield. Public figures mentioned by Grady Randolph include Dr. Rufus Clement, Morris Abrams, Celestine Sibley, Ralph McGill, Herbert Jenkins, Henry L. Bowden, Hamilton Lokey, State Senator Hoke Smith, State Senator Millican, M. M. (Muggsy) Smith, William B. Hartsfield, Ivan Allen, Jr., Sam Massell, Maynard Jackson, Bill Campbell, Ed Rivers, Eugene and Herman Talmadge, Jimmy Carter, Zell Miller, and Roy Barnes. Randolph's thoughts about international events led him to comment on U.S. Presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush, as well as international figures including Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and others.
