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.
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 |