TSU set to hold memorial for debate coach Freeman
Texas Southern University will host a public visitation and memorial service Tuesday for Thomas F. Freeman, the college’s renowned debate coach emeritus.
The public visitation, which will be livestreamed on the TSU website from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., will be followed by a memorial service in the university’s Health and Physical Education Arena on Wheeler Avenue.
In addition to TSU’s Honors College being named for Freeman since 2009, the historically black university also has launched a donation-based memorial fund for the TSU Debate Team in Freeman’s honor. It is designed to help continue the program he founded 71 years ago. For more information on Freeman’s memorial fund, visit the TSU website.
Freeman, a scholar, trained preacher and beloved debate coach, died June 6 of natural causes, his family said. He was just weeks shy of his 101st birthday.
Freeman joined TSU’s faculty in 1949 to teach philosophy. As a trained preacher, he planned to return to the pulpit at Carmel Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., at the end of the school year. But after Freeman assigned students a debate in a logic course, the president of the historically black university persuaded him to stay permanently as the debate coach.
Three months later, TSU’s debate squad bested opponents from Harvard University and the University of Chicago — just one of Freeman’s many accomplishments.
Over his 70-year tenure, Freeman became a legend on the Third Ward campus, training students and celebrities alike in forensic speech, or the study of public speaking and debate. He worked with U.S. Reps. Mickey Leland and Barbara Jordan, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, gospel superstar Yolanda
Adams and actor Denzel Washington, who sought out Freeman’s expertise to coach the cast of the Golden Globe-nominated film “The Great Debaters.”
At TSU, Freeman led students in dozens of debate championships, claiming eight first-place titles, 45 trophies and top honors at the 2019 HBCU National Speech and Debate Championship in Nashville, Tenn.
Competitions often took Freeman’s team of students out of the country — some for the first time. They traveled to London, Madrid, Prague, South Africa, and last year to Berlin, where they won 20 titles, including five first-place awards.
Freeman’s legacy also was felt in other corners of Houston.
He taught part time in the Rice University Department of Religion for more than 20 years, developing his own course to expose students to contemporary religions and religious life in Houston, and he taught speech and English as an adjunct professor at Houston Community College.
Freeman is survived by his wife Clarice, three children — Thomas Franklin Freeman Jr., Carter Evan Freeman, and Carlotta Vanessa Freeman — four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.