COLUMBIA, S.C. — Friends and colleagues are remembering Dr. Lonnie Randolph Jr. on Sunday following his death the previous day.
Those who knew Randolph described him as a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement in South Carolina.
“When you talked about, or when I thought about NAACP, the first person was Dr. Randolph," Dr. Randolph's colleague and secretary Sarah Redden said. "He was the NAACP.”
Redden remembered her time working with Dr. Randolph as a time she felt lucky to have experienced, even after knowing him for over 20 years.
“We were classmates at Benedict College, and we both majored in biology, and after we graduated, each went their own way, each took their own path and journey, and then I met him again when I started working with South Carolina State Conference," she said.
He served as the president of the Columbia Chapter of the NAACP for two decades before being tapped to lead the state conference in 2003, a position he held for 14 years.
“When your passion is something that God has given you, you do that," Redden said. "You don’t want recognition; you just go out and do it with the love that is in your heart."
Randolph was a leading voice in removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House grounds and played a key role in organizing the King Day at the Dome march in Columbia.
Colleagues said he was a man whose legacy of service will live on.
“If we had more people to emulate him, this would be a better world," Redden said. "This would truly be a better world."
Dr. Randolph is survived by his wife, Patricia Randolph, who described him as a "staunch advocate for trying to keep equality and justice right for everyone."