Robert L. Allen

Robert Lee Allen (May 29, 1942 – July 10, 2024) was an American activist, writer, and adjunct professor of African-American Studies and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.^[1] Allen received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, San Francisco, and previously taught at San José State University and Mills College. He was Senior Editor (with Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Robert Chrisman) of The Black Scholar: Journal of Black Studies and Research,^[2] published quarterly or more frequently in Oakland, California, by the Black World Foundation since 1969.

In the 1980s, he co-founded with Alice Walker the publishing company called Wild Trees Press,^[3] publishing the work of Third World writers.^[4]

Allen married Pam Allen in 1965.^[5] He died on July 10, 2024, at the age of 82.^[6]

Works

• Black Awakening in Capitalist America: An Analytic History (1969)
• A Guide to Black Power in America: An Historical Analysis (1970)
• Reluctant Reformers: The Impact of Racism on Social Movement in the U.S. (1983)^[7]
• Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (co-edited with Herb Boyd,^[8] reprinted 1996)
• Strong in the Struggle: My Life as a Black Labor Activist (with ILWU militant Lee Brown, 2001)
• Honoring Sergeant Carter: A Family's Journey to Uncover the Truth About an American Hero^[9] (with Allene G. Carter, 2004)
• The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial in U.S. Naval History^[10][11] (Heyday Books, 1989, republished 2006).

Awards

• Guggenheim Fellowship (1977)^[12]
• American Book Award (1995, with Herb Boyd^[13]) for Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America^[14]
• The Joseph Small Legacy Award^[10] (1998) of the Black Hollywood Education and Research Center.^[15] The award honors Port Chicago disaster survivor Joseph R. Small Jr.,^[16] a member of The Port Chicago 50,^[17] who provided the narrative for the first chapter of The Port Chicago Mutiny.
• One of 12 honorees of the San Francisco Public Library's Long Walk to Freedom living-history exhibition^[18] (2003)

See also

• Lián Amaris
• Stephan Aarstol