Thomas Freeman (1919 – June 6, 2020) was an American lecturer in religion, a preacher, and a debate coach. His students included

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

, U.S. Congresswoman

Barbara Jordan Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996) was an American lawyer, educator, and politician. A Democrat, she was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first Southern Africa ...

, and

Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...

. According to his ''New York Times'' obituary on June 17, 2020, Freeman was associated with the

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,00 ...

debate team that "rose to national prominence". It was founded by Freeman in 1949. Freeman led the team for more than 60 years and he also served as a visiting professor at

Morehouse College , mottoeng = And there was light (literal translation of Latin itself translated from Hebrew: "And light was made") , type = Private historically black men's liberal arts college , academic_affiliation ...

References

External links

Thomas F. Freeman Collection of home movies
at the

Texas Archive of the Moving Image The Texas Archive of the Moving Image (TAMI) is an independent 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2002 by film archivist and University of Texas at Austin professor Caroline Frick, PhD. TAMI's mission is to preserve, study, and exhibit Texas film ...

Texas Southern University faculty African-American educators African-American centenarians Men centenarians 1919 births 2020 deaths African-American Christian clergy 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people {{US-edu-bio-stub