Alexander Joseph Allen, Jr.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Alexander Joseph Allen, Jr. had several family connections to Yale. His father, Alexander Joseph Allen, Sr., a bishop of the AME Church, attended Yale Divinity School from 1912 to 1914. His uncle, Nimrod Allen, graduated from YDS in 1915. Allen, Jr. graduated from Wilberforce University with a BS in 1937. He then earned his bachelor of divinity degree from Yale in 1940, followed by a master's degree in social work from Columbia University in 1942, where he was a Ella Sachs Plotz fellow.

In 1941, Allen joined the Urban League in Baltimore as an industrial relations expert. He eventually became executive director of the Baltimore chapter, and then executive director of the Pittsburgh chapter. In 1943, the Baltimore Afro-American included Allen on its “Honor Roll,” citing “his consistent effort to improve employment conditions for war workers; his untiring and helpful work in the selection of appropriate sites for the war housing projects; his cooperation with groups fighting to maintain the democratic policy at the Western Electric Company; for sponsorship of the Hold-Your-Job campaign; and for giving his time as instructor at War Vocational School No. 453.”

Allen later worked for the AME Church and, from 1964 to 1966, he served as director of the New York Urban League. He then served, from 1966-1979, as director of the Eastern Regional Office of the National Urban League. In 1979, he was named vice president of the National Urban League. Allen had three children with his wife Elizabeth. He died in Jamaica, Queens, in 1984.