[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 13591-13592]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 IN PRAISE OF 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

                      Thursday, September 12, 2013

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. 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.
  In addition to being an educator and scholar of the first rank, Dr. 
Freeman is world renowned as the legendary coach and teacher of the art 
of forensic debate. It is therefore most fitting that he is being 
honored today in Houston at Texas Southern University Founders Day 
Convocation.
  Dr. Freeman has shaped 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

[[Page 13592]]

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). The 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 ancients 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 TSU 
students who participated in Dr. Freeman's debate class were so 
impressed with their experience that they requested that Dr. Freeman to 
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 is internationally known for his debate coaching prowess 
and for the prominent Americans who studied under his tutelage. Among 
them are 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 who was a student 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 Dr. Freeman and a group of students happened 
to be in the same restaurant as Dr. King he was surprised when Dr. King 
approached his table to say hello. Dr. King reminded Dr. Freeman that 
he had been a student in his Morehouse class and explained to 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.
  This weekend TSU will honor Dr. Freeman's 60 years of service, and I 
join them in recognizing 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 and is 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 deserving of the fitting 
tribute of being honored at the 2013 Founder's Day Convocation at Texas 
Southern University.
  Congratulations Dr. Freeman and thank you for your service to TSU, to 
America, and to humanity.

                          ____________________