Doris Harper Allen, 88, greeted a group of 草莓社区 (EMU) students in the parking lot of Rose鈥檚 in Harrisonburg, the former heart of Newtown. She quickly passed out laminated maps of what is now known as the Northeast neighborhood. And then Allen flashed a vibrant smile from beneath her bright red sunglasses.
鈥淵ou can ask me questions later,鈥� she called as she climbed into her friend Robin Lyttle鈥檚 car. 鈥淟et鈥檚 go!鈥�
Allen, who last year published a memoir 鈥淭he Way It Was, Not the Way It Is鈥� about her experiences in the Newtown area during the 1930s and ’40s, spent the afternoon and evening with 28 students teaching, sharing and interpreting African American history, culture and experience.
This was the beginning of a 2015 article about EMU鈥檚 local context cross-cultural experience. Doris Harper Allen, who , was a major contributor to that experience. She helped orient students in that class to Harrisonburg鈥檚 racial history through her memoir (self-published, 2015), used as a course reading.聽
鈥淒r. Allen was also a guide of educational learning tours for EMU students collaborating with community and church leaders in the historic Northeast Neighborhood of Harrisonburg,鈥� said Professor Deanna Durham, who with her husband Byron Peachey, now academic advocacy advisor, co-taught the local context cross cultural for several summers.
鈥淚 loved the enthusiasm and seriousness Dr. Allen shared with our students,鈥� Durham said. 鈥淪he wanted them to understand her own history both the immense joy and pride she has for this community and the deep harms caused by others. We left our time with her challenged and delighted!鈥�
Allen, who received during JMU鈥檚 2019 commencement, was born in Harrisonburg鈥檚 Northeast neighborhood on East Effinger Street in 1927, according to her online biography. Barred from attending James Madison University, then Madison College, due to racial segregation, she worked as a cook for Madison President G. Tyler Miller before enrolling at Marshall University in the early 1970s. In West Virginia, she worked as a teacher before returning to Harrisonburg, where she became involved in her native neighborhood鈥檚 revitalization efforts.
鈥淚t is with profound sorrow, we share the passing of our oldest trailblazer,鈥� the NAACP said in a statement posted to its Facebook page late Friday. 鈥淪he left a profound legacy within the city.鈥�
That legacy was recognized last month when James Madison University after her.
聽Harper published a second memoir, 鈥淛im Crow in the 鈥�30s, 40s, 50s and 60s: What was life really like in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County under the Jim Crow laws?鈥� She gives a on her most recent book.
Read and watch tributes from the and