Born Lucille Campbell on April 15, 1883, in Christiansburg, Virginia, Green was the second of three children of William and Josephine Campbell. A graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., she worked as a hairstylist in an upscale New York salon. She was the wife of labor leader A. Philip Randolph and remained his partner until her death. Green trained as a schoolteacher at Howard and married her first husband, law student Joseph Green after the two graduated. Sadly, Joseph died shortly after their new life in New York City started. After Joseph’s death, Green gave up her teaching goals and enrolled in Lelia Beauty College, which was founded in 1913 by Madam C.J. Walker. After graduating from the first class at the academy, Green started her own salon on 135th Street, attracting an elite clientele. Her business venture would help her future husband, A. Philip Randolph, immensely in his activist projects. Randolph described his wife as “beautiful, gregarious, elegant… [and] her greatest love was for people.” They met when Green was 31 and he was 25. Both of them loved Shakespeare and participated in a small amateur performance group called Ye Friends of Shakespeare in Harlem. They called each … Continue reading Lucille Campbell Green Randolph (1883-1963)