"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids--and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

 - Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

James O. Allen Sr., husband of Elise Ford Allen

James O. Allen Sr., husband of Elise Ford Allen

James O. Allen is the husband of Elise. The couple had ten children: Carol, James Jr., Gregory, Linda, Joy, Janet, Norman, Angela, Barbara, Timothy and Matthew. James was a printer and inventor with four mechanical and one chemical patent. His name is listed in The International Black Inventors Museum. He established the Allen Printing Company in 1960 and it later became the Traveler Printing and Publishing Company in 1967.