Spearing Randolph, Florence, Rev. (1866 – 1951)

In 1886, Randolph moved from South Carolina to New Jersey with her husband Hugh Randolph to work as a dressmaker. She became involved with the Monmouth Street AME Zion Church in Jersey City, where she taught Sunday school. She studied and received her preacher’s license in 1897, becoming one of few women in the Church to earn this distinction. By that time, she was already politically active as a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, an international organization that campaigned for abstinence from alcohol as a means of social reform.

In 1916, women activists founded the New Jersey Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and elected Reverend Florence Spearing Randolph as president. Randolph’s election demonstrated the deep ties between civil rights activism and the AME Zion church in the region. Under Randolph’s leadership, the federation created departments dedicated to education, temperance, “race history,” and suffrage (voting rights). From 1919 until 1921, Randolph served as pastor of Rossville AME Zion Church in Staten Island. During this time, she continued as President of the New Jersey Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs and as a member in the New Jersey Republican State Committee.

Read about Rev. Florence Spearing Randolph and other activist women in Staten Island Museum's "Women of the Nation Arise" exhibit here: https://tinyurl.com/yyuerxhv.