Our Black cemetery is important for the state of South Carolina. It is open year round as there is no gate. Anyone is welcome to visit. Established by a group of African American men in 1872, it was named after Benjamin F. Randolph, a senator who had been assassinated a few years earlier as part of the wave of violence against Black and White Republican legislators in South Carolina after the Civil War. There are more than a dozen Black Reconstruction-era legislators also buried here, perhaps more than any other cemetery in the state.

Over the years the site suffered from age and neglect, with early restoration efforts started in the 1980s. We have spent the last decade working on several phases of restoration of the Randolph Cemetery, which has included a new map of each known burial, a database of all legible headstones, and physical repairs of dozens of historic headstones. We have hosted a few public workshops and tours to teach others about historic cemetery care and we are also repairing our stewardship building, the c.1872 Thompson Cottage. Built for a Henry Thompson, this house was in the same Black family for over a century. Donated to us in the 1990s as a rental property so that we could have sustainable funding to support grass cutting at the cemetery, the cottage fell into disrepair and we are making repairs so that it can serve as our meeting location as well as a rental property again.

As a closed cemetery (closed to sales of plots) we have no means of raising funds and we have no endowment or ongoing funding. We have received some grants that have gotten us this far but as our funds diminish with each year of trying maintain the grass in our five acres, we recognize the need to reach out to our community to help educate them about this site and hopefully gain some much-needed support. If funds allowed, we could finish the repairs of the Thompson Cottage and rent it once again to generate income.