Empowering the South: Advancing Gender and Racial Justice (Pt. 2)
Welcome to this episode of Rise Urban Nation, hosted by Taryell Simmons. In this dynamic interview, we sit down with Carmen James Randolph, founding President and CEO of the Women's Foundation of the South. Together, they explore Carmen's journey from grassroots public housing advocacy in Washington, D.C. to building the first permanent philanthropic foundation dedicated to advancing health, wealth, and power for women and girls of color across the South.
Carmen describes how her husband built Cocoa Smokehouse during the pandemic, smoking ribs and salmon for visiting film production crews.
Reflecting on her early community organizing in Southeast D.C., Carmen recalls children poignantly referring to their fenced public housing community as baby Lorton.
Carmen shares how Black women in philanthropy rallied to raise the foundation's initial one hundred thousand dollars, quickly leveraging 1.3 million dollars to open its doors in August 2021.
The foundation's comprehensive civil rights audit revealed that its two highest risk factors post-affirmative action were simply being based in the South and serving women of color.
Carmen explains the creation of Woke at Rest, an innovative initiative providing unrestricted restoration micro-grants and retreats for overburdened frontline leaders.
Carmen reveals how her first job flipping burgers at McDonald's taught her the indispensable rule that executive leaders must understand every operational function.
Grassroots to Philanthropy: Carmen traces her career evolution from D.C. public housing advocacy to foundation grantmaking at the Meyer Foundation, realizing systemic change requires institutional capital.
Southern Philanthropic Disparities: The discussion highlights systemic challenges in the South, including severe Black maternal mortality rates, the lack of family leave policies, and post-Katrina economic displacement.
Permanent Generational Endowments: Carmen explains why addressing centuries of injustice requires building permanent endowments through initiatives like the Sacred Mothers of the South campaign.
Navigating Legal Opposition: The conversation examines how civil rights legal audits helped the foundation protect its core mission against anti-DEI and post-affirmative action legal challenges.
Centering Radical Rest: Carmen outlines the Woke at Rest initiative, which provides unrestricted micro-grants and restorative spaces to prevent burnout among frontline community leaders.
Establish permanent endowments rather than relying solely on temporary project grants to achieve lasting generational change.
Reclaim the ancestral tradition of communal giving and integrate grassroots mutual aid with formal philanthropic structures.
Center radical rest as an essential strategy for preventing burnout and sustaining social justice leaders.
Maintain comprehensive oversight of core organizational systems, including financial records and donor databases.
Carmen James Randolph is the founding President and CEO of the Women's Foundation of the South, bringing decades of visionary leadership in racial and gender equity. She previously served as Vice President of the Greater New Orleans Foundation and has dedicated her career to resourcing grassroots movements across the American South. Connect with Carmen and support the foundation's mission at https://www.womensfoundationsouth.org.
Taryell Simmons: Welcome ladies and gentlemen to another episode of Rise Urban Nation, where we reunite, uplift, and ignite stories of Black excellence all over the world. Today we are diving into New Orleans with a special guest who just had a house full of visitors. We are joined by a trailblazer in philanthropy, Carmen James Randolph, the founding President and CEO of Women's Foundation of the South. Carmen, it is an honor to have you share your journey. How are you doing this evening?
Carmen James Randolph: I am doing really good. Thank you so much for having me.
Taryell Simmons: We have to tell the people about the barbecue. What was on the smoker today?
Carmen James Randolph: My husband has a barbecue and catering business called Cocoa Smokehouse. He has quite a reputation for his ribs and brisket. The business started during the pandemic because I do not eat meat, and he needed his barbecue fix. He asked if people would buy his ribs so they would not go to waste, and he has been rolling ever since. Today he smoked ribs and salmon for the director of our Impact video series, Eternal Polk, our strategic communications folks, and production crew after our documentary premiere in Jackson, Mississippi.
Taryell Simmons: Shout out to Cocoa Smokehouse. I have to visit when I am in town.
Taryell Simmons: We are both from the D.C. area. How did you journey from D.C. to becoming a leader in the South, especially in New Orleans?
Carmen James Randolph: My early career began in public housing communities across the District, such as Potomac Gardens in Southeast D.C. Working closely with residents and community organizing gave me an up-close understanding of deep systemic injustice. Impacting one life at a time was meaningful work, but I desired to create broader impact. That led me into philanthropy at the Meyer Foundation. Ultimately, as a granddaughter of the South with family in South Carolina and the Sea Islands, my cultural roots drew me southward.
Taryell Simmons: Having worked in both D.C. and New Orleans, do you see similarities in the cycles of oppression and gentrification?
Carmen James Randolph: Absolutely. Initiatives like the HOPE VI project altered public housing landscapes across cities. In New Orleans, that was layered onto the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. While the physical environment has been rebuilt, equitable recovery remains unrealized. Black residents face severe economic burdens, with housing rents quadrupling from six hundred dollars before Katrina to fifteen hundred dollars or more, making living costs extraordinarily high.
Taryell Simmons: What inspired you to focus specifically on women and girls of color in Southern states?
Carmen James Randolph: While serving as Vice President of the Greater New Orleans Foundation, I noticed there was not a single fund dedicated to women and girls of color, despite pressing crises like Black maternal mortality rates four times the national average, persistent wage gaps, and an absence of family leave policies. Traditional philanthropy often places grantmaking power in the hands of people who do not reflect impacted communities. Seeing my daughter research the school-to-prison pipeline and criminalization of Black girls further underscored the urgency. In conversation with philanthropic leaders like Sherece West-Scantlebury and Gladys Washington, we recognized this was a regional crisis requiring a permanent institution rather than a temporary initiative. In February 2021, we mobilized Black women in philanthropy nationwide to raise an initial hundred thousand dollars, which leveraged broader funding to launch the foundation in August 2021 with 1.3 million dollars.
Taryell Simmons: Leading a Black woman-led organization in the South comes with unique hurdles. What obstacles have you encountered?
Carmen James Randolph: The shifting legal and policy environment has been challenging. Following the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, reproductive healthcare and maternal services became restricted across much of the South. Additionally, following the repeal of affirmative action and lawsuits against organizations like the Fearless Fund, we partnered with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law to conduct a comprehensive legal audit. The review revealed that our greatest institutional risks were simply being located in the South and serving Black women and women of color. Despite these headwinds, we remain committed to executing our mission with integrity and fidelity.
Taryell Simmons: You are merging traditional community giving with institutional endowment building. How does that model work?
Carmen James Randolph: Philanthropy fundamentally means love of humankind. Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities have always practiced philanthropy through mutual aid, family pooling, and communal support. Because the harm inflicted upon Southern women and girls of color spans generations, resolving it requires generational investment through a permanent endowment. Through our Sacred Mothers of the South campaign, we invite families across the country to pool collective contributions to honor maternal ancestors, combining grassroots traditions with formal endowment growth.
Taryell Simmons: What programmatic strategies have created the strongest impact?
Carmen James Randolph: Shortly after opening, Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana, compounding pandemic burnout for frontline leaders. Rather than conducting extractive listening sessions, we launched Woke at Rest. We gathered women of color leaders across diverse backgrounds, gifted them curated care boxes, provided five-thousand-dollar unrestricted restoration grants, and hosted restorative retreats. Centering rest as a vital leadership practice allowed leaders to heal and connect. What began as a modest pilot has distributed over one million dollars in grants and programming across four states, expanding to a fifth state and engaging over three hundred leaders.
Taryell Simmons: What key leadership lessons have guided your career?
Carmen James Randolph: My first job at age sixteen at McDonald's taught me core leadership principles. I started on the grill, operated the fry station, mopped floors, and cleaned dining rooms before ever working the cash register. That experience taught me that no leader is too good for any task and that leaders must understand every operational role. In executive management, that means directly understanding financial statements and donor databases. Furthermore, as organizations mature from infancy to growth stages, leaders must ensure the right people are in the right seats while fostering leadership from within.
Taryell Simmons: What upcoming initiatives are underway, and where can listeners connect with your work?
Carmen James Randolph: We are preparing the second edition of our research report, Shift the South: Sisterhood for Solidarity, examining equity metrics across seven Southern states. We are also screening our docu-series, As We Are, directed by Eternal Polk, while expanding Woke at Rest into Arkansas. Listeners can explore our work, join our newsletter, and support our mission at https://www.womensfoundationsouth.org.
Taryell Simmons: Thank you Carmen for your powerful leadership and transformative work. Keep on rising!
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