Randall Woodfin has always started early. At the age of 15, he served as a youth leader at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. Most of the other leaders were 17 or 18.
Years later, he went door-to-door to each dormitory to hear the concerns of the student voters during his campaign for Student Government Association president at Morehouse College. After Woodfin won that election in the spring of his junior year, that engagement with students gave his senior year presidency a head start.
At 36, Randall Woodfin is the youngest elected mayor of Birmingham, Alabama in over 100 years. The proactive and precocious candidate defeated the seven-year incumbent William Bell. In an interview with Diverse, Woodfin reflected on the plans he has for education in his hometown and how his college experience has shaped him.
As a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Woodfin spent nearly all four years in leadership. In his sophomore year, he was the president of a student organization called The Alabama Club and the office manager for the Student Government Association, or SGA. In his junior year he was elected as a secretary for SGA and went on to serve as president his senior year.
“I would say the immediate thing is listening,” Woodfin said. “The other thing that makes a good leader is actually having a vision.”
The leadership positions at Morehouse allowed him to hone both of these leadership skills. He reminisced on the brotherhood he experienced with his classmates and the shared passion for public service. Despite being born and raised in Birmingham, he proudly indicates his Atlanta area code, a small symbol for the connection he feels with his former classmates. He recalls his freshman dormitory on the second floor of White Hall, which he shared with his roommate John Cox, who is now a divinity student at Baylor.
“Although he’s not back in Birmingham or Atlanta we stay in contact,” Woodfin said. “Guys were from at least 20 different states just on my floor alone. We just remain genuine friends and all support each other across the entire nation.”
