Open Wounds: A Story of Racism, Trauma and Redemption
March 10, 2021
Special to the Sentinel Throughout his childhood, the only awareness Phil Allen, Jr. had of his paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Allen, was his absence. Allen sensed that the man existed, even though his grandmother, Rebecca Allen, did not display photos of her husband, Nate, as he was known in her home. It wasn’t until well into adulthood that Allen, now 47, learned why memories of his grandfather felt burdened by sadness. Nate Allen was murdered on the Sampit River in the town of his birth – the low country of Georgetown, South Carolina – in 1953. A Navy veteran, Nate