If you drive south of the town of Coolidge on 287, you will come to a small community with street names like Malcolm X, King, and Kennedy. For Black History Month, we will highlight the town of Randolph, Arizona.
In the 1920s, African Americans began migrating west from the South to work as pickers on cotton farms around Coolidge, Arizona. They started leaving the southeast after the Civil War, migrating to states like Texas and Oklahoma, and then moving on to Arizona. As the African-Americans working in Coolidge were not allowed to live in the town due to segregation, they settled in Randolph, just south of Coolidge. Randolph initially started as shacks for farmers to keep their temporary workers, many of the workers went on to build their own homes and start a community. The town grew to have a couple of stores, a church, and a post office.
As time has gone by, the stores and post office have closed. The biggest obstacle to the town’s cultural survival today is development. With more people and development in the area, many of Randolph's young people are leaving for better opportunities.
