Harris-Stowe State University will house the Frankie M. Freeman Civil Rights Collection, the documents from the estate of the pioneering civil rights lawyer who lived in St. Louis for decades and passed away in January 2018 at the age of 101. Her daughter, Ms. Shelbe Freeman Bullock, will be in St. Louis to announce the collection at Harris-Stowe.
“Her contributions locally and nationally forever changed the course of history, and all of us are the fortunate beneficiaries of her work,” said Dwaun J. Warmack, president of Harris-Stowe. “We are eager to share her story today and for generations to come.”
In 1952, she was the lead attorney for the landmark case Davis et. al. v. the St. Louis Housing Authority, which successfully challenged racial segregation in public housing. She also served as legal counsel to the NAACP legal team that filed suit against the St. Louis Board of Education in 1954 for racial equality.
She was the first woman and the only African American named to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, appointed in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy. She served until 1980, when she resigned her appointment to become the Inspector General of the Community Services Administration under President Jimmy Carter.
President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1964, making her the first woman on the commission. As a commissioner for 16 years, she led hearings throughout the country on issues of segregation, affirmative action and equal rights.
In 1965, President Johnson asked the commission to conduct a study on racial isolation in the public schools. After conducting hearings and studies around the country, the commission gave its report to the president, with a supplementary statement from Freeman.
In her statement to the president, she said our country is on a “collision course” created by a divided education system based on economic background and race. It can be resolved by combining resources and efforts. Her statement was made in February 1967.
“It could also be said today,” Freeman said, when she accepted the 2011 St. Louis Citizen of the Year Award. She also received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Spingarn Medal that year.
In 1999 she led a task force to oversee a landmark settlement that ended segregation in St. Louis-area public schools. She and then Washington University Chancellor Bill Danforth co-chaired a committee for monitoring and advising St. Louis Public Schools for over a decade.
She authored a book, book, “A Song of Faith and Hope” (1967), a memoir of more than 60 years as a civil rights attorney and freedom fighter.
“We are so honored to be the repository of the Frankie M. Freeman Civil Rights Collection,” Warmack said.
