Randolph Natili (October 24, 1842 - May 10, 1915) was a mixed-race Louisiana Creole author, politician, diplomate, special railroad agent, art collector, and socialite.

His father-in-law French-American composer Eugene Chassaignac desegregated Scottish Rite Freemasonic lodges in New Orleans around 1867 and Randolph's first cousin George Pandely was involved in a racial incident entitled the Pandelly Affair.

[1][2][3][4] Randolph was born in New Orleans to Doctor Auguste Natili and Mathilde Elizabeth Theophanie Dimitry their union was an interracial marriage.

[5] Randolph was raised in New Orleans and his uncle was Alexander Dimitry the first state superintendent of public education in Louisiana and U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

[3][2] Randolph had an exceptional life, due to his ethnic background it was very difficult for people of color living during the Jim Crow era because states eventually instituted the one-drop rule.

[9] Randolph's grandmother Marianne Céleste Dragon passed as a white person on public records because it was necessary to own property and have certain rights.

[11] Randolph was around eleven years old when his first cousin George Pandely was ejected from public office due to his African heritage.

The incident led the Dimitry family to claim descent from a fictitious, Indian princess of the Alibamu tribe named Malanta Talla to maintain their social status.

[15] Pieri also attended medical school in Pisa Italy and was affiliated with Paris France similar to Randolph's father Auguste.

A similar Giovanni Pieri existed, he was involved in an assignation attempt on Napoleon III entitled the Orsini affair.

Randolph's father-in-law Eugene was also involved in a highly publicized racial incident when he desegregated masonic lodges in 1867.

Randolph's first cousin Virginia Dimitry Ruth wrote about a painting that same year entitled Aphrodite or Venus Restored which was published in the Daily Picayune and Louis Placide Canonge along with John Bull Smith Dimitry wrote a forty-four-page pamphlet describing the Venus Anadyomene in 1877.

[7] Randolph was an aesthete and by 1900 published an illustrated art book entitled Martin H. Colnaghi, Marlborough Gallery.

[28] According to Edward Eanes's biography on Giuseppe Ferrata, the composer heavily relied on his relationship with the Dimitry family for support.

[29] From the onset of Ferrata and Randolph's relationship a reception was organized for the composer at the Mayer Hotel in Baton Rouge on May 31, 1894.

Ferrata dedicated a song entitled "Baron Natili" Gavotte to his new relative, and around the same period, Randolph gave him a Steinway grand piano for Christmas 1894.

Not only did the Dimitry family accomplish the task of portraying fabricated American Indian historical figures out of sociological necessity.

Years later Randolph revealed that the Chinese gentleman in his company at the opera was the cousin of the owner of washhouses in New Orleans.

Randolph was known for bending the truth and playing jokes on his high society contemporaries which was chronicled in his biographical content.

Towards the end of his life, he lived the highest level of grandiosity, and years before his death his salary was 25,000 close to one million dollars adjusted for inflation and he shared the company of Europe and America's wealthiest socialites never disclosing his African heritage.