Allen Ballard, a graduate of Philadelphia's Central High School, Kenyon College, and Harvard University, was formerly a professor of government at City College of New York. He lives in Clifton Park, New York. His previous works on African-American history-including the renown "One More Day's Journey, a history of Black Philadelphia", have been praised by such literary greats as Ralph Ellison, John A. Williams, and Alex Haley. His ¿rst novel-about the very ¿rst African-American troops in the Civil War-"Where I'm Bound", (Simon and Schuster, 2000) won the 'First Novelist' prize of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and was named a 'Notable Book of the Year' by the Washington Post. He is also the author of "Breaching Jericho's Walls", an autobiography. "Carried by Six, A Novel of Urban Bravery in America" is the recipient of the 2010 Black Caucus American Literary Award (BCALA) Honorable Mention in Fiction.