James Allen

James Allen is the 81-year-old director of the Addicts Rehabilitation Center. Soon after he founded the center in 1957 — after kicking his own habit — Allen founded the a cappella Addicts Rehabilitation Center Gospel Choir (ARC). Their song "Walk With Me" was heard recently as a sample on the Kanye West song "Jesus Walks."

Tens of thousands of African-American men, women, and children were lynched by mobs in the United States between 1882 and 1968. Some of these lynchings were photographed, and the photos were saved as souvenirs, and were even sometimes used as postcards. Antique dealer James Allen came across these disturbing images and began to collect them. His collection is currently on display at the New York Historical Society. The book about Allen’s collection, called “Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America” (Twin Palms Publishers) was published earlier this year.