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Allen-McFarland Family Papers

The Allen-McFarland Family Papers chiefly document an African American family in the South in the mid-twentieth century, providing considerable insight into the values and norms of African Americans during this period, as well as the opportunities and frustrations of a struggling minority. The digitized items relate primarily to Dudley High School and Bennett College.

Loose scrapbook materials
This is a collection of loose ephemera possibly accumulated by Dorothy Allen. It includes newspaper clippings of Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, and the birth of the Fultz Quadruplets. Other items are: photos (including Bennett's last high school graduates and Laura Allen as a young woman), invitations (including one to Andra W. Allen's high school graduation), announcements, church hymns & programs, poetry, drawings, telegrams, an issue of the Bennett Banner, and a postcard of the rare radio program "Wings Over Jordan."
Scrapbook
This scrapbook was most likely presented to Dorothy Allen McFarland by J.P. Allen in June 1940, possibly as a gift upon her graduation from Bennett College. The scrapbook includes a clipping of a class portrait of Ms. McFarland as part of the last high school graduating class at Bennett (1932?). Numerous photos show classmates, relatives, and friends from this period. The scrapbook also includes a clipping about Belle Tobias Curtis, a prominent Bennett College instructor who died suddenly on her honeymoon, senior class and baccalaureate programs (1940), a program for a presentation of "As You Like It" at Bennett (1940), and photos of Ms. McFarland's entire graduating class.

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