Background
Allen was born in Elkins, West Virginia on April 25, 1911.
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James Allen, Junior.
Edit ProfileCommissioner of Education Masters
Education
Harvard University.
Career
He ordered New York school boards to comply with the 1962 United States Supreme Court order banning prayer in New York schools and began desegregation of New York Public Schools. He worked for the West Virginia State Department of Education for six years before attending Harvard University, where he earned his masters degree in education in 1942 and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1945. In 1947, he went to work for the New York Department of Education.
He became Deputy Commissioner of Education in 1950 and Commissioner in 1955.
In 1960, he was opposed to school districts drawn up along racial lines and began having local school boards redraw boundaries to end racial disparities in 1962. In June 1962, the Supreme Court banned prayer in New York public schools, an order Allen directed local school boards to follow.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed him United States. His strong support for desegregation caused friction however, and President Nixon removed him the following year. He went from there to the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.
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Born
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Died
October 16, 1971 (aged 60) -
Nationality
South U