Douglas S. Freeman High School

High school in Henrico, Virginia

Douglas S. Freeman High School is a public high school located in the West End of Henrico County, Virginia. It is operated by Henrico County Public Schools.

Part of Henrico County Public Schools, the high school is named after Pulitzer Prize winning Virginia author, historian and pioneering radio broadcaster, Douglas Southall Freeman. It opened in 1954, slightly more than one year after Freeman's death.

Henrico County runs a system in which each high school contains a specialty center, a separate but integrated entity within the school that functions as a magnet program. The centers offer advanced courses to students who have clear interests and specific educational and/or career goals. Douglas Freeman High School's center is the Center for Leadership, Government and Global Economics. The Students learn the complexities of political, social and economic life. The also learn to analyze through modern lens and ambiguates of modern life.

Freeman is a member of the Virginia High School League. It competes in the 5A Central Region and 5A Colonial District. The school colors are blue and gray and the teams are nicknamed the "Mavericks". The colors and mascot were devised as a tribute to Douglas Freeman's extensive study of the Civil War. The school's nickname was the "Rebels" until being changed in 2020.

James E. Ryan's book Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America explores the issue of economic school segregation by comparing Freeman to nearby Thomas Jefferson High School, located in the city of Richmond. Arguing for more freedom in school choice, Ryan cites findings that "high poverty" schools (like Thomas Jefferson) consistently under perform "low poverty" schools (like Freeman) academically, regardless of the financial resources allocated to them. He concludes: "The truth is that separating the poor and politically powerless in their own schools and districts is antithetical to the idea of equal educational opportunity."