Florence Spearing Randolph

Florence Spearing Randolph (August 6 or August 9, 1866 – December 28, 1951) was an American clubwoman, suffragist, and ordained minister, pastor of the Wallace Chapel AME Zion Church in Summit, Union County, New Jersey, United States. from 1925 to 1946. She organized the New Jersey Federation of Colored Women's Clubs and was president of the New Jersey Women's Foreign Missionary Society.

Early life Florence Spearing was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the daughter of John Spearing and Anna Smith Spearing. Her father was a cabinetmaker. Spearing trained as a dressmaker and moved north to New Jersey, where she lived with her sister Lena for work. Later in life, she became the first African-American woman to enroll at Drew University. In 1933 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Livingstone College. She came to the Wallace Chapel as a temporary pastor in 1925; this arrangement was soon made permanent, and she was the church's pastor for over twenty years, until she retired in 1946. During her tenure, the church built its current building and paid the debts incurred, in full. She mentored Charity Zormelo, an educator from Ghana.

Florence Spearing Randolph served on the executive board of the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association. In 1915, she was founder and president of the New Jersey Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.

Personal life and legacy Florence Spearing married Hugh Randolph, a railroad cook, in 1884. Their daughter Leah Viola Randolph was born in 1887. sermons from the suitcase were included in Collier-Thomas's Daughters of Thunder: Black Women Preachers and Their Sermons, 1850-1979 (1998).

There is a Reverend Florence Spearing Randolph Prize given by the Theological School at Drew University, in her memory. In 2015 the Women's Home and Missionary Society held a Founder's Day to celebrate the life of Randolph.