Hrabowski, Freeman A., interviewee.

Paving the way for African Americans of the future, Freeman Hrabowski III was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on August 13, 1950. After graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Hrabowski went on to attend the Hampton Institute and spent a year studying at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. After earning his B.A. in mathematics in 1970, Hrabowski attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, earning an M.A. in 1971 and a Ph.D. in higher education administration in 1975.

Growing up in racially divisive Birmingham, Hrabowski was involved at an early age in the civil rights movement. He participated in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s children's crusade and was arrested. He also knew one of the young girls killed in the Birmingham church bombing of 1963. Hrabowski also noted that many of his classmates did not excel the way he did with mathematics, and by the time he entered the University of Illinois he was the only black student in his classes. Curious and inspired, Hrabowski established a tutoring center for African Americans in high school and college math and science courses.

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