Career in Public Education
Miss Randolph began her career as a school teacher. After a short teaching experience in Goochland County, she secured a teaching position with the Henrico County School Board. She opened the Mountain Road School in the north central part of the county in 1892. As a teacher there, Randolph taught her students woodworking, sewing, cooking, and gardening, as well as academics.
In 1908, Henrico County Superintendent of Schools Jackson T. Davis named her to become the United States' first "Jeanes Supervising Industrial Teacher." Anna T. Jeanes, a wealthy Philadelphia Quaker, had set aside $1 million to establish a fund to maintain and assist rural schools for African Americans in the South. Among its projects, the Jeanes Foundation provided funds to employ black "supervisors" dedicated to upgrading vocational training programs for black students. African-American supervisors of teachers in the rural south from 1908 to 1968, Jeanes teachers (formally called Jeanes supervising industrial teachers) worked toward improving the communities of schools.
As the overseer of twenty three elementary schools in Henrico County, Virginia Randolph developed the first in-service training program for black teachers and worked on improving the curriculum of the schools. With the freedom to design her own agenda, she shaped industrial work and community self-help programs to meet specific needs of schools. She chronicled her progress by becoming the author of the Henrico Plan which became a reference book for southern schools receiving assistance from the Jeanes Foundation, which became known as the Negro Rural School Fund. Randolph's teaching techniques and philosophy were later adopted in Great Britain's African colonies.
On March 30, 1908, following a proclamation by Virginia Governor Claude A. Swanson, Miss Randolph founded the first Arbor Day Program in Virginia. She and her students planted twelve Sycamore trees. Some of the trees remain standing as living monuments, but over the years, some of the trees were lost to disease. In 1976, the remaining ones were named the first notable trees in Virginia by the National Park Service.
In 1915, Miss Randolph opened the Virginia Randolph Training School and later expanded the facility to include dormitories for future teachers. It was later renamed to Virginia Randolph Education Center.
Miss Randolph was appointed to the Industrial School Board of Colored Children after the death of another noted Richmonder, Maggie L. Walker. She also served for many years on the Inter-Racial and Health Board for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
After a 57-year career with Henrico County Public Schools, Miss Randolph retired in 1949. A foundation to honor her and award scholarships was formed in 1954. She died in Richmond on March 16, 1958, at the age of 84.
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