{{Short description|American lawyer and politician}} {{Use American English|date=March 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}} '''Oliver Randolph''' (October 31, 1877<ref name=Draft>{{cite web |title=World War I Draft Card of Oliver Randolph |last=Randolph |first=Oliver |date=1917–1918 |publisher=Ancestry.com |url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=6482&h=31301674&tid=&pid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=sNx421&_phstart=successSource}}</ref> – October 2, 1951) was an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he was the first African American to be admitted to the New Jersey bar, the second African American elected to the New Jersey Legislature, and the only African American to serve as a delegate to the New Jersey Constitutional Convention of 1947.
==Early life and career==
Randolph was born in Pass Christian, Harrison County, Mississippi in 1882 to John W. and Mary E.J. Randolph.<ref name=Resume>{{cite web |title=Résumé of Oliver Randolph |last=Randolph |first=Oliver |date=August 31, 1923 |publisher=W. E. B. Du Bois Papers |url=http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b167-i502 |accessdate=September 21, 2016}}</ref> He was the grandson of a Virginia slave.<ref name=NYT>{{cite news |title=Oliver Randolph |work=The New York Times |date=September 3, 1951 |page=13 |accessdate=September 21, 2016 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/09/03/archives/oliver-randolph.html}}</ref> His father, John W. Randolph, served in the Mississippi Legislature in the Reconstruction Era. His brother, Joseph B. Randolph, became president of Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina.<ref name=Resume/> He graduated from Wiley College in Marshall, Texas and received a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.<ref name=NYT/>
Randolph moved to Newark, New Jersey and was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1914, the first African American to do so.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=Encyc>{{cite book |title=Encyclopedia of New Jersey |editor1=Maxine N. Lurie |editor2= Marc Mappen |location=New Brunswick, N.J. |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0813536510 |page=678 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_r9Ni6_u0JEC&pg=PA678}}</ref>
==Political career==
Randolph entered Republican politics in Essex County, New Jersey and was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in November 1922. He became the second African American to serve in the state legislature, after Walter G. Alexander's election to the Assembly in 1920.<ref name=Resolution>{{Cite FTP |title=Assembly Resolution No. 161 |date=March 21, 2006 |url=ftp://www.njleg.state.nj.us/20062007/AR/161_I1.HTM |server=New Jersey General Assembly |url-status=dead |accessdate=September 21, 2016}}</ref>
In the Assembly, Randolph authored the state's anti-lynching law and introduced legislation opposing the Ku Klux Klan.<ref name=Resume/><ref name=Crisis>{{cite news |title=The Horizon |work=The Crisis |date=November 1923 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=41kEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA33}}</ref>
In 1923, he was appointed Special Assistant United States District Attorney for New Jersey on the recommendation of U.S. Senator Walter E. Edge.<ref name=Resume/><ref name=Crisis/> He was the first African American to hold this position, serving for ten years. He was appointed a Deputy Attorney General in 1946.<ref name=NYT/>
In 1947, he was the sole African American among the 81 delegates to the New Jersey Constitutional Convention.<ref name=Resolution/> Representing Essex County, he served on the convention's Committee on Rights, Privileges, Amendments, and Miscellaneous Provisions. He successfully advocated for what became Article 1, Paragraph 5 of the Constitution of New Jersey, which states: "No person shall be denied the enjoyment of any civil or military right, nor be discriminated against in the exercise of any civil or military right, nor be segregated in the militia or in the public schools, because of religious principles, race, color, ancestry or national origin."<ref name=Encyc/>
Randolph died at Newark's Presbyterian Hospital in 1951.<ref name=NYT/>
The Garden State Bar Association, an affiliate chapter of the National Bar Association, annually presents the Oliver Randolph Award to celebrate Randolph's legacy as a civil rights pioneer.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.rutgers.edu/news-releases/2010/04/professor-jon-dubin-20100429 |title=Professor Jon Dubin of Rutgers–Newark Law School Honored for Excellence in Service, Social Justice, and Advocacy |publisher=Rutgers University |date=April 29, 2010 |accessdate=September 21, 2016}}</ref>
==See also== *List of African-American officeholders (1900–1959)
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Randolph, Oliver}} Category:1877 births Category:1951 deaths Category:Wiley University alumni Category:Howard University alumni Category:Republican Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly Category:African-American state legislators in New Jersey Category:People from Pass Christian, Mississippi Category:Politicians from Newark, New Jersey Category:Activists for African-American civil rights Category:Lawyers from Newark, New Jersey Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:20th-century African-American politicians Category:20th-century African-American lawyers Category:20th-century members of the New Jersey Legislature