Allen B. Ballard is Professor of History and Africana Studies at the University at Albany–SUNY and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at City College of New York. His previously published works include two books of nonfiction, The Education of Black Folk: The Afro-American Struggle for Knowledge in White America and One More Day's Journey: The Story of a Family and a People; and two novels, Where I'm Bound, a Washington Post Notable Book of the Year and Carried by Six, winner of the "Honor Book Prize" in Afro-American Literature from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.
