“Being in his class wasn’t only an educational experience but a spiritual and social experience,” said the current coach of Dr. Thomas Freeman, who was a former student. (Credit...Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)

Dr. Freeman was so revered that when actor and filmmaker Denzel Washington began working on the 2007 movie “The Great Debaters,” about a winning all-black debate team in the 1930s, he tapped Dr. Freeman to lead a debate “boot camp” for the cast. The professor preached a philosophy of learning by doing and employed a mantra that served as his debate team’s motto: “What we do, we do well; what we don’t do well, we don’t do at all.”

With the recent passing of Dr. Thomas Freeman and a new yet unnamed library at Texas Southern University, we believe it is the perfect time to honor the legacy of Dr. Freeman and name the new library in his honor. 

For years, the most prominent figure at Texas Southern University was a slim, short-bearded debate coach known as Doc — a master of forensic speech, or the art of public speaking and debate, who outshined the university’s football coaches, outlasted 12 school presidents and built one of the country’s most celebrated debate programs.
 
A Baptist minister as well as a professor, Thomas F. Freeman was one of those rare instructors whose mentorship and guidance outside the classroom was prized as much as his teaching. His students included the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., gospel singer Yolanda Adams and Rep. Barbara Jordan (D-Tex.), whose eloquent and impassioned speeches captivated national audiences in the 1970s.“I cannot overestimate the impact and influence Dr. Freeman had on my life,” Jordan once told the New York Times. “He stretches your mind. He places you on your own, teaches you to stand on your feet, think, and open your mouth and talk.” Another former student, Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis (D), told the newspaper: “He taught us to push as hard as we could to go as far as we could."

- Washington Post, June 18, 2020

We ask that alumni, community members and friends, please join us in spreading this campaign of support and send a clear message to the Texas Southern University Board of Regents that there is only one choice for this naming opportunity.