Allan Crite was a renowned Black artist who received his formal training at Harvard University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Raised in Boston, his early work in the 1920s and 1930s depicted vibrant street scenes of the daily lives of Black Bostonians. A devout Episcopalian, his work soon began to exhibit strong religious themes as well, depicting Black people in interpretations of Biblical stories and African American spirituals. Primarily a painter, Crite also wrote and illustrated several books, created hand-tooled brass panels that adorned a monastery, and designed vestments and banners for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He authored Is it Nothing to You?, which was published in 1948 by the Department of Social Service in the Diocese of Massachusetts.

Crite received several honorary doctorate degrees, and during the 1950s and 1960s, lectured on religious art at seminaries around the U.S. and Europe. His work was exhibited at the Smithsonian, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, the Art Institute in Chicago, and other major art galleries in the United States. Many Episcopalians were familiar with his popular artistic illustrations that were published as covers for Sunday service leaflets in the 1970s and 1980s.

Crite's personal papers are located at the Beinecke Library at Yale University.