Michael Allen
Board Member
Charleston resident Michael Allen recently retired after serving over three decades with the National Park Service. He continues to work today to educate and inspire through the telling of American history as it relates to the Black experience.
"Today, we talk about sensitivity of history and how history always has an impact on our current life and our current discord dialogue. Here I am, an African American man in the summer of 1980, working at this very sensitive place of Fort Sumter and being asked by the public, 'Why are you here? What do you have to do with the history of this site and how does a black man fit into the Civil War story?'" he said.
His list of accomplishments is lengthy. Allen played a role in the creation of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Commission. And in 2019, he was awarded The Order of the Palmetto for African American Civicism.
