Dr. Thomas F. Freeman

The plaque names King among the people Freeman influenced; the connection ran through Atlanta. In 1947, a year before finishing his Chicago doctorate, Freeman was a visiting professor at Morehouse College, where King was a junior. Freeman did not recall the student until King approached him in a restaurant years afterward: "You don't remember me, but I remember you." Freeman had preached his first sermon at nine, and he also studied at Andover Newton and, in 1963, at the University of Vienna. In 2007 Denzel Washington chose him to coach the cast of The Great Debaters.

What the plaque says

Dr. Thomas F. Freeman (June 27, 1919 - June 6, 2020) Celebrated philosophy professor and debate coach, Dr. Thomas Franklin Freeman, was born in Richmond, Virginia, to Louis and Louise (Willis) Freeman. Thomas Freeman attended Armstrong High School and graduated at age 15. He enrolled at Virginia Union University and earned his bachelor's degree in English. He went on to earn a doctorate from the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Dr. Freeman was also pastor of Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Richmond. In 1949, he received a job offer from Texas Southern University (TSU) as a philosophy professor. Dr. Freeman accepted the offer under the impression that it would only be for nine months. After the first year, he decided to stay at the school while serving the community as a minister at Mount Horem Baptist Church in Houston's Fifth Ward. He organized the TSU debate team in 1949. The team gained recognition and prestige after the student debaters beat Harvard University in a tournament in 1956. Under Dr. Freeman's leadership, the debate team won over 3,000 trophies and numerous tournaments. In 2009, the TSU Honors College was named after Dr. Freeman as a sign of respect and gratitude for his contributions to the school and the African American community. As a debate coach, philosophy professor and minister, Dr. Freeman directly influenced the lives of thousands of people in more than 70 years of service at TSU and 69 years pastoring Mt. Horem Baptist Church. He met, taught and influenced national and global figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barbara Jordan. In his 100-year life, Dr. Freeman left an indelible mark on his community and nation. (2020)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Emancipation Park — 1.0 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 1.4 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston — 1.8 mi
  The oldest art museum in Texas, grown from a 1900 schoolroom art league into a campus of Watkin, Mies van der Rohe and later buildings, with Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend up the bayou.
• Rothko Chapel — 2.4 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• The Murals of Hannah Hall — steps away
• Barbara Charline Jordan — 0.2 mi
• George Thomas "Mickey" Leland III — 0.2 mi
• John Thomas Biggers — 0.2 mi