Bosley, Freeman, 1954-

Freeman R. Bosley Jr. (born July 20, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he notably served as the 43rd mayor of St. Louis, Missouri, the city's first African-American mayor, from 1993 to 1997.

Born and raised in St. Louis, he graduated from Central High School in 1972 and went on to earn two B.A. degrees from Saint Louis University and a J.D. degree from Saint Louis University School of Law. Upon graduation from law school, Bosley was staff attorney for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, specializing in Consumer Affairs and Utility Companies. Bosley has also been employed by the law firm of Boast and Jordan. Bosley was selected as the first African-American St. Louis Circuit Clerk for the 22nd Judicial Circuit, a position he held for ten years. He later served as the 3rd Ward Democratic Committeeman. He then became chairman of the St. Louis City Democratic Central Association and subsequently became the first African-American chairman of the Democratic Party in St. Louis City.

In 1993, at the age of 38, Bosley was elected mayor defeating a relatively unknown Republican, John Gorman, and two independent candidates by winning 67 percent of the vote. Shortly after assuming office, Bosley announced his intention to lobby for an end to St. Louis’s ten-year-old school desegregation program. While appreciating the need for school desegregation, Bosley believed the program had hurt the city by encouraging parents to leave the city. Bosley preferred to use the federal money the city received to upgrade schools in all of the city’s neighborhoods. Bosley also led the effort to relocate the Los Angeles Rams football team to St. Louis. His term was also colored by corruption scandals. Crime increased throughout north St. Louis and his popularity plummeted. He was defeated by Clarence Harmon in his bid for re-election in 1997. In 2001, when Bosley ran for mayor in the Democratic Primary, he was defeated again by a wide margin, this time by Francis Slay.

After leaving office, Bosley practiced law with the law firm Caldwell & Singleton and joined two other former mayors, James Conway and Vincent Schoemehl, as leaders in the group Citizens for Home Rule. Bosley started his own law practice, Bosley & Associates, in 2004. In September 2014 the Missouri Supreme Court found Bosley violated various attorney rules, his conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation, and regarding diligence. The Court further determined Bosley violated attorney/client trust account rules including commingling of funds, failure to keep proper records, not having funds in the trust account to cover charges (bouncing checks), and failure to deliver monies due clients. The Supreme Court suspended indefinitely Freeman Bosley's law license. Despite more complaints from clients, the latest of which was dated March 2016, the Supreme Court had restored his license on December 20 of that year after he paid $10,000 worth of damages with $25,000 were labeled as pending.