He served as the executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (WHIHBCUs) under President Barack Obama.

[4] His stepfather, Imari Obadele, was a professor at Prairie View A&M University, a black nationalist, reparations advocate, and president of the Republic of New Afrika.

[6] Toldson's maternal grandfather is John Henry Scott, a voting and civil rights activist from Lake Providence, Louisiana.

[citation needed] Toldson's mother, Johnita Scott, raised him in North Baton Rouge, where she ran a home-based daycare center in a working-class neighborhood.

Toldson was appointed by President Barack Obama to be the executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities from 2013 to 2016.

[13] In this position, he worked with the U.S. Secretary of Education to devise national strategies to sustain and expand federal support to HBCUs.

As contributing education editor for The Root, Toldson gained a national reputation for debunking myths about African-Americans and challenging what he considers "BS," or Bad Stats.

"[14] He also refers to the "Acting White Theory" as a myth,[15] claims Black men are more likely to choose teaching as a profession than White men,[16] denies any connection between single parent households and lack of educational progress in the Black community,[17] and rejects the methods advocates use to covey a dropout and literacy crisis among African American students.

[22] Because of his reputation as a "myth buster," he routinely interviews for PolitiFact, where he critiqued claims made by Ben Carson,[23] President Jimmy Carter[24] and Sen. John Eichelberger.

On this, NPR news reported, "[Toldson] says this refusal to look at the data closely — to prefer a story over the facts — creates more problems than it solves.