Randall, Ollie

Description

This folder contains materials created/collected by Ollie Randall. Ollie A. Randall had a long career as a social worker, welfare administrator, lecturer, consultant, writer, and advocate for the aging. She worked for the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (later Community Service Society) in New York for nearly forty years. After retiring in 1955, Randall began work as a freelance consultant and advocate in the field of aging. This folder contains materials relating to her consulting work with Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People. The Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People was founded by Eliza Bryant, a humanitarian who was born into slavery. Her family was emancipated in 1848 and moved to Cleveland, Ohio where Bryant's mother purchased a home with funds from her previous slave-owner (Bryant's father). As an adult, Bryant worked to assist newly emancipated African American people in Cleveland, and became particularly interested in the plight of the elderly, many of whom where homeless due to the after-effects of a life of enslavement. In the late 1890s, after years of community organizing, Bryant received a financial donation from John D. Rockefeller and was able to open the Cleveland Home for Aged Colored People in 1897. The home has been continuously open into the 21st century, and in 1960 the name was changed to the Eliza Bryant Home for the Aged.

Record Contributed By

University of Minnesota Libraries