Randolph Cemetery is located in the downtown area of Columbia, South Carolina and is the first cemetery formally established for the city's African-American community. In 1871, nineteen local black legislators and businessmen came together to form an association to establish a respectable place for burial for blacks in Columbia. Prior to this period African-Americans were buried near the river in the local Potter's Field along with poor whites. The group initially purchased three acres of land from a pre-existing white cemetery (Elmwood Cemetery) in 1872. The men named their association and the cemetery in honor of Senator Benjamin Franklin Randolph.

Members of the original Randolph Cemetery association

Sen. William B. Nash (1st president of assoc.) Alonzo Resse
Sen. Benjamin Thompson Addison Richardson
Rep. Charles Wilder J. J. Ransier
Captain J. Carroll Francis L. Cardoza
Isaac Blacks Robert B. Elliott
John H. Bryant John Fitzsimmons
Adam Thomas Hampton Mims
N. E. Edwards W. A. Taylor
Augustus Cooper C. B. Thompson
Rep. William Simons