Paves path his own way
In 1962, the eyes of the world were on the American South”™s civil rights movement, but in New York City Winston E. Allen quietly broke down the racial barriers in the financial services sector by opening Creative Investor Services ”“ the first Black-owned broker-dealer firm on Wall Street. Today the 88-year-old Westport resident recalls his financial career in his newly published autobiography “I Pried Open Wall Street in 1962.”
The son of Jamaican immigrants, who grew up in New York City”™s Harlem, Allen had no idea of segregation until 1946 when he took a train to Miami. In a sealed compartment, because Blacks were not even allowed to go near sleeping cars, he saw signs along the way designating separate entrances and facilities for “Whites” and “Colored.” When applying for a job on Wall Street he encountered racial bias and decided the only way for him to get to Wall Street was to become a broker-dealer. He passed the National Association of Securities Dealers examination and became licensed on Dec. 2, 1962. His is not a planned story but he hopes people will be inspired from his book.
