Longtime debate coach has cultivated politicians, preachers

HOUSTON -- For more than 50 years, Thomas Freeman has taught the power of the spoken word, and at 82, the Texas Southern University professor is still shaping the oratorical skills of his students.

Freeman has instructed some of America's legendary black politicians, educators and spiritual leaders, including the late U.S. Reps Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland and Martin Luther King Jr., who took a course from Freeman when he taught at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

"He really is sort of a living legend," said Otis King, Jordan's former debate partner who is now a law professor at the university. "Everyone respects him. Everyone looks up to him."

"Dr. Freeman is part legend, philosopher, innovator, preacher, grandfather, motivator, father and coach," former debate team member Bruce Austin said. "He is a great leader and a great and loyal follower. He is all these things that can only be described simply as 'Doc."'

Finding their voices

Former students describe a mentor who taught them to value education and overcome racial prejudice through hard work. A teacher who gave them an opportunity to experience the world.

Above all, he taught them to use their voices.

"Even in a love relationship, one has to communicate," Freeman said. "To be able to communicate well puts you at a competitive advantage. If you want to go somewhere in life, you need to be equipped and the debate team equips you."

Freeman says he has no specific formula for success. He approaches students as individuals and teaches them to cultivate their natural talents. He said Jordan and Leland arrived with potential.

"I don't think either one would have developed without some assistance from somebody," he said.

After receiving his doctorate from the divinity school at the University of Chicago, Freeman originally planned to wield influence from the pulpit. But after spending a year at the newly formed Texas State University for Negroes in the late 1940s, Freeman's students implored him stay.

"It was not my intention to make a career out of coaching others in debate," Freeman said. "I tell students the most valuable thing that happened to me, during my college career, was my experience on the debate team."

He has passed on that experience.

In the early days, Freeman often would use his own money to buy gas to chauffeur team members to tournaments throughout the country. Many had never been outside Houston.

Now students who participate in the nationally recognized debate team enjoy scholarships and corporate sponsors to defray travel costs. Freeman's students travel the world.

Otis King and Austin said the debate team at the historically black university taught them they could succeed when given the same opportunities as whites, even during segregation.

"We began to develop confidence in ourselves that we could go up against anyone if the playing field was level," King said. "And in debate, the playing field was level."

Occasionally, however, there were hurdles. "He had us deal with adversity differently than most," said Austin. "He helped us realize there were people who were prejudiced and he did not teach us to get angry. Instead, he taught us to get tougher and to get better."

Retired university administrator James Race, also a debate student, said he likely would not have gone on to become Freeman's boss if he hadn't learned important life lessons from his teacher.

"It was drilled into your head that education was a way to get ahead for African-Americans," Race said.