Robert Edison was born in Louisville, Kentucky. He is a graduate of Louisville Male High School. After earning an Associate Art’s degree from Southwestern Christian College in 1968 and enrolled in Oklahoma Christian College.
He has earned a B.A., degree, in Political Science from East Texas State University, a Master’s degree in Civic Affairs from the University of Dallas and a Second Master’s degree, in history from Texas A&M University-Commerce on a James Madison Memorial Fellowship. Mr. Edison worked for the Dallas Independent School District for 44 years and retired as the Director of Social Studies Instruction in 2017. While working at the Dallas ISD he served as the Curator of the African American Cultural Heritage Center, a district museum that was established as part of the 1975 desegregation order.
He spent a year working for the College of Charleston in South Carolina as Director of the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. Edison serves as the president of the W.M. Dulaney Branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History and is a former Board Member for the Dallas NAACP Branch and continues to be a member of the NAACP National Branch.
In 2019 he was named A Distinguished Visiting Professor of American Studies on Race and Ethnicity at Oklahoma Christian University in Edmond, Oklahoma and teaches Introduction to African American Studies and the Philosophy of Race, course. He also co-teaches a class on Race, Class and Gender in the Honors Program. He will be assisting the University in the establishment of an African American history minor.
One of the highlights of his career was being selected as a Fulbright Teacher Scholar and spending six weeks in Egypt studying at the American University in Cairo. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and was a member of the charter line at ETSU now Texas A&M- Commerce. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University in 1993.