Dr. David Ponton III is a historian of Afro-America and the twentieth century United States.  He is an Associate Professor and Director of African and African American Studies at Rollins College.  

Ponton is the author of Houston and the Permanence of Segregation: An Afropessimist Approach to Urban History  (University of Texas Press, 2024).   He received his A.B. degree from Princeton University with a religious studies concentration and certificates in African American Studies and 6-12 social studies education.  After teaching high school history for three years, Ponton earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in History at Rice University with a graduate certificate in the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.