In Memoriam

M. Freeman Cocroft, III

Freeman Cocroft
1964 Yale graduation

Yale Alumni Records reported that they received notification of Freeman Cocroft’s death via the Yale Alumni Magazine Class Notes form. His death was in December 2022. His last known address was at 568 Post Road, Wakefield, RI 02879-7512. We have been unable to find an obituary.

Stewart Sharp ’64 wrote the following essay about Freeman for inclusion in our 50th Reunion Class Book.

Essay on Freeman Cocroft

by Stewart Sharp ’64

Freeman Cocroft’s Dwight Hall involvement with underprivileged youths and their parents, all black, gave him a crucial insight into the lives of African Americans. He resolved well before graduation to volunteer for Freedom Summer. He already knew, before reporting for orientation with C.O.R.E. in Memphis, that three volunteers based in Meridian, Mississippi were missing. On completion he was assigned to Meridian to augment the depleted team. He was assisted in finding accommodation just down the road from the family of James Chaney, the black missing volunteer.

His host, Will Figgers, was a decent non-violent man, of course black. No white families opened their homes to volunteers of any race. Carrying passengers of different races was enough to get drivers pulled over and accused of spurious traffic offences in Mississippi in 1964.

Freeman was arrested three times that summer and each time was taken into custody. For the first two times it was for a number of hours each, but the third time he spent the night in jail. One indelible memory of that experience was being given, for breakfast, a raw egg cracked open into a very dented ice tray and having only hands and fingers to eat it with.

Late that summer Freeman woke abruptly from an idyllic dream of lying on a beach. With no beach anywhere close, reality set in! Someone had fired a shotgun blast through the window into his bedroom, just inches over his body, scattering glass everywhere! Will Figgers loaded his shotgun and waited. First to arrive were the F.B.I. who took statements and left. Then followed the Meridian police, who bizarrely unloaded Will Figgers' shotgun!

Two days later an anonymous phone call explained the shooting by accusing Freeman of consorting with black women. Naturally, there were black female volunteers, but the insinuation was ludicrous. However, it provided great amusement to all volunteers, since it was common knowledge that several Meridian policemen regularly coupled with black women!

A couple days later, an attempt was made to firebomb the Chaney home. The attackers mistakenly targeted the house next door. Luckily, there was not much damage, nor was anyone hurt, however both houses were full of children. Later, the city paid for repairs to Will Figgers' windows and other damage.

Freeman never married, and has no children. He explained in response to a query that in 1972 he came out as a gay man. The marriage options then available were of no interest. He currently has no partner. At Yale, he said, he wasn't in the closet, he was in the deep freeze!

At age 65 Freeman found himself in hospital undergoing surgery, initially exploratory, which discovered cancer. For around two years he was in and out of hospitals and nursing homes, having surgery and treatments. The cancer, now in remission, left him considerably weaker and he now moves around with the aid of a walker.

Freeman regards his involvement in Civil Rights as simply something that needed to be done, regretting that Afro Americans are still a long way from equality. He urges everyone to read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, which discusses what Black Americans are doing and must do to achieve closer equality.