One of Santa Monica’s living legends will be celebrated this weekend with a 100th birthday party for Lloyd C. Allen.
Allen will join the Centenarian club with a drive-through celebration on Sat, Aug. 28 from 2-3:30 p.m. at Calvary Baptist Church and the celebration will recognize Allen’s decades of commitment to the community.
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, August 1921, he moved to Santa Monica in 1939 with his family. The young Allen was already showing signs of his future potential and he wasn’t a fan of the move at the time as it disrupted one of his early entrepreneurial successes.
“I had a thriving delivery route at the time so I didn’t understand why we had to go,” he said.
Allen’s talent for business would serve him well throughout his life as he broke barriers and established a one-man economy in the city.
He went from an attendant at a car wash to eventually owning a parking attendant business, a barbecue restaurant, a laundry business and daycare facility. He spent more than 50 years at the corner of 4th and Pico operating Allen Maintenance, Allen Janitorial Supplies and Equipment, and Allen Vacuum Repairs. From 1949 - 2005 he produced many products under the name “Old Observer Products” and carried more than 2400 items occupying a 900 sq. ft. building with 30 parking spaces.
That unparalleled success earned him a host of leadership positions in the city. He served as the first Black member of the Recreation and Parks commission where he was instrumental in the establishment of Virginia Ave.
Park. He became the first Black member of the Rotary Club of Santa Monica and was elected President of the Rotary Club of Malibu in 1984-85 before going on to run the Watts Willowbrook Rotary Club.
He played a critical role in the Nat Trives Campaign for City Council in 1971 and was nominated by then Governor Reagan and appointed by President Richard Nixon to the Selective Service Board in Santa Monica.
As Allen looks back on his vibrant career, he comes back to the work he did to fight for civil rights as a high point in his life.
He said Santa Monica was at the height of racial prejudice when he arrived with Blacks confined to a small area of the city. He said his early attempts at employment were thwarted when white business owners refused to pay him for his work but he developed a strategy of nonviolent resistance that capitalized on his business acumen and his deep religious faith to improve life for his community.
“We fought but we didn’t go around with our fists rolled up to white people,” he said. “My fight is not that way, my fight is like the bible says. Love. I dare you to do it, if you do it, you’ll win every time.”
As an activist, Allen helped bring Martin Luther King to the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. He also lead a picket line at Sears to demand they hire their first Black clerks and he worked with his contacts in the business community to get Black employees hired at local banks.
Allen rattles off an astounding list of accomplishments with a matter-of-fact style that belies the scale of his work.
“I’ve never tried to be anything other than try to be a good citizen, work as I should and take care of my family and that’s what I’ve done,” he said. “I’m not out to try to be something that a lot of people want to be and I really think that a lot of the jobs that I had, others should have had but it came to me.”
Allen said a foundation for his work has been his faith.
“It’s been good for me taking life as it comes my way but I’ve been in church all my life, my dad was in church all of his life and my kids are in church,” he said.
As a longtime member of Calvary Baptist Church, he served several terms as Superintendent of the Calvary Baptist Church Sunday School Department and currently serves as member of Calvary’s Deacons Ministry.
While Allen sold his businesses in 2005, he still owns a piece of property in the City that is itself a sign of his legacy.
“I did the best I could coming along, not just for me but for all people,” he said. “My people needed a lot of help and I got the cemetery to open so we could be buried more than just along the side of the street and my grave is in there waiting for me.”
Calvary Baptist Church is located at 1502 20th St. Visit www.calvarysantamonica.org for more information.
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