Biographical Database of Black Women Suffragists

Biography of Mrs. Kate Randolph, 1880 – ?

By Janira Teague, Assistant Professor, Norfolk State University

Mrs. Kate Randolph (maiden name unknown) participated in the women's rights movement. She served as a delegate to the fifth annual meeting of the Empire State Federation of Women's Clubs, which was held in Buffalo, New York, in 1913. The federation served as an umbrella organization for African American women's clubs in the state of New York. Founded in 1908, it had two primary goals: to develop programs for the assistance of young American women and to support Harriet Tubman. When the famed 91-year-old liberator and abolitionist died in 1913, the organization focused on funding for education. At the 1913 meeting attended by Kate, the federation also firmly supported women's suffrage; in addition, it denounced the use of tobacco and smoking, a major platform for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).

Although New York was home to Kate when she attended the convention, it was not her birthplace. Kate was born around 1880 in Virginia, the homeland of her parents. By 1905, she had relocated to New York City, which was a major receiving city for black Virginian migrants. She arrived just before the Great Migration, the wave of over six million African Americans who left the South for the North and West during the World War I era until the 1970s.

By 1903, Kate had married another Virginia native, Frank Randolph (b. 1876). He supported his family by working as a railroad porter, and Kate remained in the home while she participated in numerous organizations, including the Household of Ruth. Frank and Kate briefly lived with their niece Mary Meade, also a houseworker, but by 1910, the couple lived by themselves at 630 E. 230th Street in the Bronx. This was where they welcomed their first child, a daughter, Elizabeth (b. 1919). In 1940 the couple, now in their 60's, continued to live in the Bronx, Frank was a porter and Kate was a housewife. Their home was valued at $7,000, and Frank's annual income at $1000, both substantial figures for this date. Frank (recorded as Frances in the census) and Kate (Katherine in this entry) were both recorded as having completed the 8th grade; daughter May Elizabeth, four years of college. The family remained in the Bronx while Kate championed rights for women and African Americans.

Sources

New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1905; Election District: A.D. 23 E.D. 15; City: Manhattan; County: New York; Page: 5, Ancestry.com.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Bronx Assembly District 32, New York, New York; Roll: T624_998; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 1485; FHL microfilm: 1375011, Ancestry.com.

Year: 1910; Census Place: Bronx Assembly District 32, New York, New York; Roll: T624_998; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 1485; FHL microfilm: 1375011, Ancestry.com.

New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 70; Assembly District: 32; City: New York; County: Bronx; Page: 81, Ancestry.com

Year: 1920; Census Place: Bronx Assembly District 6, Bronx, New York; Roll: T625_1139; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 363

1940 Federal Manuscript census, Bronx, N.Y. for Frances and Katherine Randolph—linked to Kate and Frank Randolph of earlier censuses. Accessed through HeritageQuest.com.

Peter Eisenstadt and Laura-Eve Moss, eds. “Empire State Federation of Women's Club.” The Encyclopedia of New York State (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2005).

“Women Want to Vote.” New York Age (New York City), July 10, 1913. This source mentions Mrs. Frank Randolph as a delegate to the annual meeting of the Empire State Federation. Evidence suggests that Mrs. Frank Randolph is Kate Randolph.


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