Dr. David Canton is Director of African American Studies Program and Associate Professor of History at the University of Florida. He graduated with a B.A. in History from Morehouse College, received his M.A. in Black Studies from The Ohio State University and PhD in history from Temple University.
Dr. Canton is the Director of the African American Studies Program at the University of Florida. During his tenure at Connecticut College, he served as Director of Africana Studies, Interim Dean of Institutional Equity and Inclusion, Chair of the History Department, Director of the Center of the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity and Co-Director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program.
Dr. Canton is the author of Raymond Pace Alexander: A New Negro Lawyer Fights for Civil Rights in Philadelphia(opens in new tab). The biography examines Alexander’s role in the civil rights struggle in Philadelphia from the New Negro to the Black Power Era. His book won the 2011 W.E.B. DuBois book award from the Northeast Black Studies Association. Currently, Canton is working on two book projects. He is a co-authoring a book with Joe Madison titled Radio Active: Turning Moments into Movements. Joe Madison, “The Black Eagle” is a civil rights activist and radio talk show host. He is writing a biography titled Lawrence Dunbar Reddick: Activist/Historian. In 1939, Reddick received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago and is most widely known for his 1937 Journal of Negro History essay titled “A New Interpretation for Negro History,” and Crusader Without Violence (1959), the first biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Reddick played a central role in the develop of African American history in the academy and black community.
His articles and essays have appeared in Western Journal of Black Studies, Pennsylvania History, Journal of Civil and Human Rights, Reviews in American History, and Journal of Urban History.
He teaches courses on the Black Freedom Struggle, Civil Rights Struggle in the North, History of Hip Hop Music and Culture, and Introduction to African American Studies. His African American history class was featured on C Span American History Television (opens in new tab)and he has published essays on racism, poverty, and the lack of African Americans players in major league baseball. “Where are All the Black Baseball Players’? U.S. News and World Report, July 10, 2017(opens in new tab).
He joined the African American Studies Program at the University of Florida after teaching at Connecticut College from 2003-2020.