[3] Allen was an artistic child who began sculpting at the age of 13, when she was assigned to make an ashtray and instead created a bust of Aristotle.

[2] People described her art as a history in bronze because she always focused on important black historical figures and wanted to portray them through sculpture.

[5] After college she volunteered for AmeriCorps VISTA and for several years hosted a local television show on the arts in Mobile, Alabama.

[6] Allen's first major work was a nine-foot bronze statue of A. Philip Randolph, leader of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

[9][12] Her bust of Frederick Douglass is on display at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; it was featured in a scene in the movie Akeelah and the Bee.

[13][1] She is part of the permanent collection at the Schomburg Center for Black Culture and the African-American museum in Long Island, New York.