What a man, this Freeman Hrabowski III.
At 12, he and his black classmates marched with Dr. King in Birmingham, Ala. Bull Connor spit in his face. Hrabowski was arrested, and spent a week in jail.
At 19, he graduated college. A doctorate by 24. Today, he's one of America's most important educators, specializing in courting children of color and poverty to fall in love with education, the humanities and science.
The president of University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Hrabowski is perfecting the process of educating Americans -- especially African Americans -- in the fields of science and engineering.
He has the ear of the president. Has been named one of the top university presidents in America and one of the most influential people on earth. We should speak his name around the dinner table, just as we do Peyton and Lebron's.
Monday, Hrabowski was in town, speaking to a packed crowd at the Chattanooga Convention Center for the sixth annual Odyssey Luncheon, which celebrates the Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy.
It was the most dynamic, beautiful speech I've heard in months. The room went weak in the knees. Hrabowski quoted Zora Neale Hurston ("Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board"), then Dickinson ("Tell all the truth, but tell it slant") and Maya Angelou.
"Give birth again to the dream," he said.
He was fluent with statistics, citing reason after reason why we need to promote science and math as beautiful subjects that go off like fireworks in our children's minds, especially our girls'.
"We've seen a 50 percent drop in women majoring in computer sciences," he said.
He spoke of his mother, who grew up in small-town Wetumpka, Ala., and learned to read by borrowing books from the rich shelves of the white family whose home she cleaned, which led her to college, then to a most sacred career.
"An English teacher," Hrabowski said.
I could go on and on about Hrabowski and his life.
But the real heart of Monday's luncheon -- and this column -- lies elsewhere.
You can find it within the teachers and students at Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy, our city's all-girls' public charter school.
"We give them hope," said Dr. Elaine Swafford, principal of CGLA. "We teach them about the will to learn."
Not long ago, CGLA was warned by the state that it may have to shut its doors, so poor were its scores and performance.
Today? The state is still paying attention. This time, with awards.
* CGLA, which has nearly 300 girls from grades 6-12, has twice been named a Reward School, placing it among the top 5 percent of Tennessee schools with the highest level of academic growth.
"We are fourth among all schools in the county among Algebra I and Algebra II," Swafford said.
* In 2013, CGLA had the highest percentage of academic growth among all county schools.
* The majority of its graduating students are the first in their family to go to college.
"I plan to earn my bachelor's and master's degree in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt," said Ka'Darrell Howell, a CGLA freshman. "Then, I plan to go to law school."
At the luncheon, two other students spoke -- Anyang Ayai, a seventh-grader who wants to be a civil engineer, and Frida Uwimana, a freshman who one day plans to work in a job I can only spell.
"A financial analyst for a banking corporation," she said.
As he spoke, Hrabowski praised CGLA over and over, even mentioning the short, promotional video that opened the luncheon.
"This is a wonderful national model," he said. "We are going to make sure the White House sends it out across the country."
What a school, this Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy.
Contact David Cook at dcook@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6329. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter at DavidCookTFP.