June 24, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 116 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E563]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  REMEMBERING DR. THOMAS F. FREEMAN: EDUCATOR, SCHOLAR, AND LEGENDARY 
                 COACH AND TEACHER OF THE ART OF DEBATE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 24, 2020

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Dr. Thomas 
F. Freeman, who for more than 60 years has been a professor of 
philosophy at Texas Southern University, which is located in my 
congressional district.
  Dr. Freeman died last week, on Saturday, June 6, 2020, in Houston, 
Texas at the age of 100 years old but forever young.
  In addition to being an educator and scholar of the first rank, Dr. 
Freeman was world renowned as the legendary coach and teacher of the 
art of forensic debate and who helped shape the lives of countless 
young people who were his students, including the Rev. Dr. Martin 
Luther King, Jr. and the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, who once 
held the seat I now hold.
  Dr. Freeman's tools were the spoken word. His canvas was the minds of 
the brilliant and talented young African Americans seeking a higher 
education.
  A prodigy himself, Dr. Freeman graduated from Virginia Union 
University at the age of 18 and went on to become a professor at 
Virginia Union University before his 30th birthday.
  He would later receive degrees from Andover Newton Theological 
School; Harvard University; Chicago Divinity School; the University of 
Vienna in Austria, and the University of Liberia in Africa.
  In 1949, Dr. Freeman was among a group of accomplished academics of 
color hired by Texas Southern University (TSU).
  That same year he held a debate in his TSU logic class using his own 
undergraduate experience as a guide.
  Debate is defined as a contention by words or arguments; or as a 
formal discussion of a motion before a deliberative body according to 
the rules of parliamentary procedure; or a regulated discussion of a 
proposition between two matched sides.
  But to Dr. Freeman, it was much more than a contest; it was a way of 
life.
  Dr. Freeman understood, as did Socrates when he said to Glaucon in 
Book X of the Republic that ``the contest is great my dear Glaucon, 
greater than it seems--this contest that concerns becoming good or 
bad.''
  Dr. Freeman's success was informed by his passionate belief that 
strong debate skills translated into a range of life skills that would 
serve students well in their personal lives and professional careers.
  Dr. Freeman's academic roots in moral philosophy and theology came 
through in his instruction of his debate team students.
  Through the art of debate, Dr. Freeman taught what the ancient Greeks 
called arete, which is defined as an ``activity of the soul in accord 
with virtue in a complete life.''
  As Aristotle explains in the Nicomachean Ethics, happiness comes from 
exercising the full range of one's vital powers directed toward 
excellence.
  Virtue and excellence and happiness is what Dr. Freeman taught his 
students and that is why he and they were special.
  In 1949, the Texas Southern University students who participated in 
Dr. Freeman's debate class were so impressed with their experience that 
they requested that Dr. Freeman form and coach a team.
  Dr. Freeman agreed and founded the Texas Southern University debate 
program which today is world renowned for its skill and for the number 
of championships won.
  Dr. Freeman was internationally known for his debate coaching prowess 
and for the prominent Americans who studied under his tutelage.
  As noted, among them were the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and 
the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
  The debating skills that young Barbara Jordan developed under Dr. 
Freeman's tutelage were so formidable that she became the first female 
to travel with the TSU debate team.
  She and her debate partner Otis King participated in and won many 
awards, including the championship at Baylor University, the first 
integrated debate match held in the South.
  Barbara Jordan went on to become a Texas State Senator and the first 
Texas African American woman elected to the House of Representatives 
from my state.
  She characterized her experience of learning under his tutelage as 
having shaped her view of the importance of mastering the skills of 
debate.
  Congresswoman Jordan and Dr. Freeman remained close and upon her 
death he gave the eulogy at her funeral.
  Dr. Freeman's skill as a debate coach came to the attention of Denzel 
Washington when he sought a model for the role of a debate coach for 
his role in the critically acclaimed film ``The Great Debaters,'' based 
on life of Melvin B. Tolson, who formed the Wiley College debate team. 
The Wiley College debate team defeated the University of Southern 
California (USC) debate team for the 1935 national championship.
  One of the students in Dr. Freeman's class during his tenure as a 
visiting lecturer at Morehouse University was a young Martin Luther 
King, Jr.
  Dr. Freeman had such an influential effect on him that years later 
while he and a group of students happened to be in the same restaurant 
he was surprised when Dr. King approached his table to say hello and 
reminded him that he had been a student in his Morehouse class and 
shared with the students how much that experience shaped his life.
  Dr. Freeman's contributions to the Texas Southern University 
Community included serving as Founding Dean of both the Weekend College 
and the Honors College.
  Dr. Freeman worked with then TSU President Granville M. Sawyer to 
develop the program and serve as its dean.
  The Honors College, renamed in his honor as the Thomas F. Freeman 
Honors College, was developed for academically gifted and motivated 
students to provide them with the most rigorous and challenging 
academic regimen.
  In 1972, Dr. Freeman was asked by Rice University to join its faculty 
after it had desegregated.
  Dr. Freeman began a 23-year career association with Rice University. 
As near as anyone recalls, he was the first African American professor 
to teach at this prestigious university before returning to TSU where 
he resumed teaching and leading the TSU debate team to countless 
victories.
  The life of Dr. Thomas F. Freeman reminds us all of the impact a 
great teacher can have in changing the world for the better through his 
or her students.
  Too often a teaching career is viewed by too many as an option taken 
by those who cannot excel elsewhere.
  But those of us who know better know that it is the great teacher 
that makes it possible for us to succeed anywhere and in any pursuit.
  Dr. Freeman was such a teacher.
  But as he lived a full and complete life rooted in excellence, 
virtue, and service, he also was a minister of the gospel, community 
leader, husband, father, mentor, and a friend to thousands.
  It can truly be said of Dr. Freeman that his has been a consequential 
life.
  That is why Dr. Freeman is legendary and why in memory of this great 
man that I ask the House to observe a moment of silence as a tribute to 
Dr. Freeman's service to Texas Southern University, to America, and to 
humanity.

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