Edwin Archer Randolph

Edwin (sometimes erroneously referred to as Edmund or Edward) Archer Randolph was born enslaved in 1850 in Richmond, Virginia. He is known today as the first Black graduate of the Yale Law School.

As a child, Randolph was listed in an inventory of enslaved people of the Clay Hill plantation, included in the estate of William J. Barksdale in 1860. His mother, Rebecca Randolph, died sometime shortly after the end of the Civil War. His father, James, moved to Hanover County, Virginia, and died in 1885. Edwin moved to Richmond where he was living in 1870 and 1873. Randolph graduated from Wayland Seminary in Washington, DC, before enrolling in Yale Law School. He received an LLB. degree from Yale in 1880. Following his Yale graduation, Randolph settled in Richmond. He was likely the first Black law school graduate to establish a practice in the city.

In 1882, Randolph ran for and won a seat on the Richmond Common Council, representing the Black Jackson Ward as a Republican. He served on the school committee and pursued a $10,000 appropriation to build an armory for the city's Black militia. In 1882, he was one of a group of thirteen formerly enslaved people who came together to establish the Richmond Planet, a Black newspaper. He served as editor in chief from 1882 to 1884.

In 1884, Randolph won a seat on the city Board of Aldermen. The same year, Governor Wiliam E. Cameron appointed him to serve as the commissioner from Virginia on the World's Exposition in New Orleans. He was put in charge of a special exhibition to focus on Black achievements. Also in 1884, he wrote and published The Life of John Jasper, a biography of the formerly enslaved minister and lecturer.

After graduating, he returned to Richmond to practice law. In the 1880s, he served on the Richmond Common Council and on the Richmond Board of Aldermen. He was a writer and editor, publishing in 1884 The Life of John Jasper, a biography of the formerly enslaved minister and lecturer, and serving as an editor for the Richmond Planet newspaper. He married Olive Virginia Crawford in 1892.

A family story records an event in 1909 when President William Howard Taft visited Richmond and Randolph was among a number of Black citizens to meet with the president:

After a photograph of the gathering had been taken on the steps of the Capitol, Randolph reminded the President that he, like Taft, was proud to have been educated at Yale.

He died in 1919 during the influenza pandemic and is buried in Richmond.

Parts of this biography were based on an unpublished document, "Edwin Archer Randolph Rediscovered," by Etta R. Williams.

The Life of Rev. John Jasper, Pastor of Sixth Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Richmond, Va., from His Birth to the Present Time, with His Theory on the Rotation of the Sun. Richmond, VA: R. T. Hill, 1884.