Robert D. Edison papers

Robert D. Edison spent over 40 years serving the Dallas Indepedent School District. He grew up in Kentucky was attending Oklahoma Christian College in 1969 when he and 17 other students were kicked out for challenging discrimination throughout campus; in 2019, he was invited to become a distinguished visiting professor in American Studies on Race and Ethnicity at the school. He graduated from East Texas State University and obtained master’s degrees in civic affairs and history from University of Dallas and Texas A&M, respectively.

After moving to Dallas in 1971, he became locally active with the NAACP and the Juanita Crafts Civil Rights House. He was hired by the Dallas Independent School District as a social studies teacher; he was named Teacher of the Year in 1995 and recieved a Fulbright Teacher Fellowship to study at the American University in Cairo, Egypt in 1985. His short tenure as director of Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture lasted less than one year before he returned to Dallas to become director of social studies for the district. He also served as curator of the Dallas Independent School District African-American Cultural Heritage Center and assistant director of research and public program for the Dallas Historical Society. Since retiring from education, he has served as the curator of the Dallas ISD African American Cultural Heritage Center.