Frankie Muse Freeman
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| Frankie Muse Freeman | |
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| Date of birth: | November 24, 1916 |
| Place of birth: | Danville, Virginia, USA |
| Movement: | Civil Rights Movement |
| Major organizations: | NAACP U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Howard University National Urban League Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. |
The Honorable Frankie Muse Freeman (born Marie Frankie Muse, November 24, 1916 in Danville, Virginia) is an American civil rights attorney, and the first woman to be appointed to the United States Commission on Civil Rights (1964 to 1979), a federal fact-finding body that investigates complaints alleging discrimination. Freeman was instrumental in creating the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights founded in 1982, and has been a practicing attorney in state and federal courts for nearly sixty years.
In 2007, Freeman was inducted in the "International Civil Rights Walk of Fame" at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, Atlanta, Georgia, for her leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Born to William Brown Muse and Maude Beatrice Smith Muse, came from college-educated families. Freeman grew up in Danville where she attended Westmoreland School and learned to play the piano. At age sixteen, Freeman enrolled in her mother's alma mater, Hampton Institute, which she attended between 1933 and 1936. In 1944, she was admitted to Howard University Law School and received a law degree in 1947.
In 1948, after writing to several law firms and not hearing back from them, Freeman decided to establish her own private practice. She began her practice with pro bono, divorce and criminal cases. After two years, Freeman began her work in civil rights when she became legal counsel to the NAACP legal team that filed suit against the St. Louis Board of Education in 1949. In 1954, Freeman was the lead attorney for the landmark NAACP case Davis et al v. the St. Louis Housing Authority, which ended legal racial discrimination in public housing with the city. Freeman worked as staff attorney for the St. Louis Land Clearance and Housing Authorities from 1956 until 1970, first as associate general counsel and later as general counsel of the St. Louis Housing Authority.
In March of 1964, she was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson as a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. On September 15, 1964, the Senate approved Freeman’s nomination and she was officially the first black female on the civil rights commission. Freeman was subsequently reappointed again by Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and held the position until July 1979. She became Inspector General for the Community Services Administration during Jimmy Carter's Administration in 1979. However, a little more than a year after she became inspector general, Ronald Reagan was elected president. The day after his inauguration in 1981 Freeman visited the office of the CSA administrator and was handed an envelope from the White House that she — along with all inspectors of the other agencies — had been dismissed effective the day before. She returned to St. Louis, where she has practiced law ever since. In 1982, Freeman joined 15 other former high federal officials who formed a bipartisan Citizens Commission on Civil Rights, a group committed to ending racial discrimination and devising remedies that would counteract its harmful effects.[2]
Freeman is a Trustee Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of Howard University,[3] past Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Council on Aging, Inc. and the National Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. She is also a board member of the United Way of Greater St. Louis, the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District and the St. Louis Center for International Relations. In 2003, she published her memoirs, A Song of Faith and Hope. She is past national president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and has received several honorary doctorate degrees from institutions that include Hampton University, University of Missouri–St. Louis, Saint Louis University,[4] Washington University in St. Louis and Howard University.[5] She was also inducted into the National Bar Association's Hall of Fame in 1990.
At age 90, she's still practicing law with Montgomery Hollie & Associates, L.L.C. in St. Louis, a three-attorney firm, volunteer activities, such as adult Sunday school classes she teaches at Washington Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church. Currently on the board of the World Affairs Councils of America, St. Louis, with the mission that promotes understanding, engagement, relationships, and leadership in world affairs.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Resource
Freeman, Frankie Muse. A Song of Faith and Hope: The Life of Frankie Muse Freeman, Missouri Historical Society Press (April 2003) - ISBN 1883982413
