Jennings Randolph: Servant, Statesman, Seventh Day Baptist: Many Advantages Come Along with Being Part of the Baptist Family, Especially As Those Advantages Are Expressed Through the Relationships We Have with Our Baptist Brothers and Sisters. Inside the Baptist Family, We Have Our Own Clans, And Kinship Inside Those Clans Is Meaningful (Biography‪)‬

Seventh Day Baptists are a particularly clannish people, demonstrating long historical lines tied closely to family names that extend back to the days of our inception. That clannishness comes with its share of advantages and disadvantages. I discovered one particular advantage of being a Seventh Day Baptist as I undertook this article to capsulate the life and contributions of Jennings Randolph, a United States representative and senator from West Virginia for over fifty years and a prominent Seventh Day Baptist. (1) That advantage was expressed through the personal connectedness many Seventh Day Baptists feel towards the longtime senator whom they refer to simply as "Jennings." I am a younger man, and I was not a regular participant in the activities of our General Conference until 1998, the year of Jennings's death, so I do not have any personal memories of the senator. Many times in my discussions with more senior Seventh Day Baptists, I felt as if I was the only one who did not have such personal memories, but I gained an appreciation for the contributions he made not only to this country but also to the people and churches of the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference.