Dr. Robert Allen was born on May 29, 1942 in Atlanta, Georgia. In his sophomore year of high school, he enrolled in Morehouse College as part of a scholarship program, where he became involved in early Civil Rights Movement demonstrations. He went on to join the Anti-War Movement in the late sixties. After earning his Master’s Degree at the New School for Social Research in New York, Dr. Allen earned his PhD in Sociology at the University of California, San Francisco. While working on his dissertation, he discovered articles about the Port Chicago explosion and began to research the topic further. He tracked down and interviewed several of the surviving mutineers and ultimately published The Port Chicago Mutiny, a detailed account of the Port Chicago explosion, the ensuing mutiny trial, and significance in the Civil Rights Movement.