Anthony E. Dixon, PhD Request engagement

Public historian · Archivist · Author

From state prison to a doctorate.

Anthony E. Dixon took a history degree out of Florida A&M in 1994, served five and a half years in a Florida state prison, and came out to earn a doctorate. He now researches the history of incarceration professionally.

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Anthony E. Dixon, PhD, in a black jacket and purple shirt.

The story

The story is in the dates.

A native of Fort Valley, Georgia. Based in Orlando, Florida, and travelling nationally. The line from a bachelor's degree to a doctorate runs straight through five and a half years in a state prison — and that is the part of the record he speaks about.

  1. 1994

    Florida A&M University

    BS, History. Minor in African American Studies.

  2. Then

    Five and a half years in state prison

    Served after the degree, and before everything that followed it.

  3. 2001

    Florida A&M University

    MA, Applied Social Science, History concentration.

  4. 2007

    Indiana University

    PhD, History. Major field African Diaspora; minor in Library Science, Special Collections & Archives.

  5. 2019

    Florida State University

    MS, Information Science.

  6. Today

    Archival and Historical Research Associates

    Founder and President of a public history firm with three divisions: Consultancy, Publishing and Media.

“Straddled two worlds: the world of academia and the world of the streets.”
Dixon, describing himself in his own book

The lectures

Four lectures.

Each one comes out of the research and the books, not off a shelf. Open a card for the detail, then send it straight to the booking form.

01 Up From Incarceration Convocation · Criminal justice · Campus-wide

Dixon took a history degree out of Florida A&M in 1994 and went from there into a Florida state prison for five and a half years. Volume one of Up From Incarceration is subtitled Dispelling Myths of the Thug Life, and the lecture does what the subtitle says — from a speaker who came out, earned a doctorate, and now researches the history of incarceration professionally.

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02 Florida's Negro War Black History Month · History dept · Honors college

The Second Seminole War of 1835 to 1842 is normally taught as an Indian war. Dixon's research argues it was a slave rebellion — and perhaps the most successful one in United States history. The lecture rebuilds the war around the Black Seminoles who fought it.

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03 Florida as the First Destination Africana studies · Library programming · Community

Before the Underground Railroad ran north, it ran south. Dixon traces Florida as the first destination of the Underground Railroad, then follows the line forward into the Afro-Caribbean migration into Florida that continues today.

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04 Public History as a Vocation Career programming · Graduate seminar · Faculty development

Dixon holds a doctorate in history with a minor in library science, special collections and archives, and a master's in information science on top of it. He built Archival and Historical Research Associates to practise public history across three divisions — consultancy, publishing and media. The lecture is about that path: what public history is, where the work actually is, and how research training turns into a practice outside the tenure track.

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The books

Three titles.

The lectures come out of these.

Cover of Up From Incarceration by Anthony E. Dixon.

Up From Incarceration

Volume 1: Dispelling Myths of the Thug Life.

Cover of Florida's Negro War by Anthony E. Dixon.

Florida's Negro War

Black Seminoles and the Second Seminole War, 1835–1842. Argues the Second Seminole War was a slave rebellion — perhaps the most successful in US history.

Cover of Timeline of the African Diaspora Experience by Anthony E. Dixon.

Timeline of the African Diaspora Experience

Florida as the first destination of the Underground Railroad, and the Afro-Caribbean migration that continues today.

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