Lillian V. Randolph attended Armstrong High School in Richmond, Virginia and registered to vote in 1938 after paying a poll tax.

Armstrong High School was orginally named Richmond Normal and High School when it was founded in 1867 by the Freedman's Bureau as the first high school for African Americans in Richmond, Virginia. It was later renamed for General Samuel Chapman Armstrong who was a white commander of a United States Colored Troops regiment during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Armstrong also founded the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, now known as Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. Armstrong High School began with an all white faculty until 1915 when the staff was replaced by an all African American faculty of ten women and five men. The school was integrated in 1971.

Among the autographs in the books is one extensive entry from Randolph's teacher, Lavinia J. Banks. After teaching at Armstrong High School for at least thirty years, Banks was an advocate during the Civil Rights movement. As treasurer of the Virgnia Teachers Association, Banks helped to combine it with the white Virginia Educational Association. Banks was also a proponent of the anti poll tax movement and testified as a representative of the Virginia Teachers Association in a legislative session.