Harold Allen has been working with McKeesport’s youth since he graduated from McKeesport Area High School.
Photograph by Alyssa Mauer
In many stories there are guardians who lead, protect and guide their people. In the case of Harold Allen this is not just a story, it is his life. After our sit down interview, I consider him a guardian.
I interviewed Mr. Allen last month. When I immediately began asking questions about his life, his reserved and normally quiet demeanor changed. He began to share his many years of wisdom with me. His life started in New Jersey and soon after his family moved to Clariton. He moved back and forth from Clairton to McKeesport where he ultimately stayed and graduated from the McKeesport Area School District.
During his childhood and teenage years, America was going through the civil rights era and many of the events that happened were deeply felt by the people. Mr. Allen described how he and the people around him reacted when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He said that “everyone just started crying“, he was just in the sixth grade at the time. Growing up during this time heavily influenced his mindset and goals in his teen years.
In high school, he and a group of his peers protested for more representation and involvement of African-American teachers in the McKeesport Area School District. This brought light to an overlooked situation and forced the superintendent at the time, Harry Faulk, to take action and bring in more African-American faculty members. This was a great achievement that greatly impacted the black community within Mckeesport. He feels we shouldn’t have to be threatening towards the school district in order to get what we need.
Right after graduating high school he became a human relations liaison working with the children and creating desegregated transportation from Harrison Village to Francis McClure Elementary School. Mr. Allen continued to be involved in the community as an athlete to becoming a coach. He coached little league baseball from 1976 to 1991 and The Little Tigers from 1991 to 2006. He also coached a team in Wilkinsburg and a teenage girls softball team. While coaching, he also worked with other groups such as the Black Political Empowerment Project, known as B-PEP, the Urban League, the McKeesport section of the NAACP, and later he co-founded YouthCAST with his son-in-law, Keino Fitzpatrick.
Through all these programs he has been able to reach and mentor the younger generations that came after him. He compared this to the older generation that mentored him when he was a teen. They helped them to push for the change they wanted to see, while teaching them to fight for those changes in ways that would positively impact their cause, now many of his mentors are gone and as the years go by, Mr. Allen continues to search for younger people to pass the torch and carry on the movement.
He pointed out one of the main components of the movement is having youth replace our retired leaders. He stressed that we need more people of color in our community teaching, leading, and taking high positions to make sure that everyone’s needs are met. Other pieces to this movement is making sure that we make our voices heard through voting and keep building bridges with other communities
He has noticed some of the college level kids and a few of the high school kids are starting to become more serious about these issues, although it still concerns him that much of the younger generation seem uninterested in standing up to the plate and making these necessary changes to our communities. Allen pointed out that representation, voting, and leadership are only a few of the things that have been somewhat abandoned by younger people, but these are the things that are very interconnected in our lives. He knows in order to continue the momentum our predecessors started, we must continue the work they have done.
But as he continues to search, teach and lead, the pandemic has been a trial for all of us. Mr. Allen experienced this firsthand. He described having the virus as an horrible experience, but after talking with him about it I knew that this man of God depended on his faith in the Lord to get him through. As we were about to end the interview, he told me about a time before he was born. A pastor that his family knew had come to their home and had prayed death off of him, he said after hearing that he believes prayers still work even after that person has already passed.
This experience of talking with and getting to know Mr. Harold has been an awesome one. I first met him through the YouthCAST program and I enjoyed his presence, he was and is always willing to help. Getting to know more about him and his beliefs have reminded me of some of the goals that I have forgotten about in the midst of all the chaos in our world. I really appreciate the work he does and I know with people like Mr. Harold, including me, will be able to grow and protect our community like guardians.
- Nya O’Neal