Clarence Thomas

Clarence Thomas was born in a small town outside of Savannah, Georgia, in 1948 (Brock, 1993, 62). When his father left the family, Thomas was still a young child, and his mother had to support Thomas, his older sister, and younger brother. At the age of 8, Thomas went to live with his mother's parents and helped his grandfather work on a truck. Thomas then attended a segregated Catholic school (Brock, 1993, 62). Later, during one of Thomas's speeches, he commented about this education, saying, "I grew up under state enforced segregation, which is as close to totalitarianism as I would like to get (Ibid., 63)." He also said that the household he grew up in was "more conservative than many who fashion themselves as conservative today (Ibid.)."

By the 11th grade, Thomas was attending the St. John Vianney Minor Seminary and was the only black student in his class. Under his high school yearbook photograph were the words: "Blew that exam, only got a 98 (Brock, 1993, 63)." .Thomas then went to Holy Cross College, where he majored in English and graduated with honors in 1971. The day after his college graduation, Thomas married Kathy Ambush, and a few years later they had a son, Jamal. (He would later remarry, this time to a white woman, Virginia, who shared his conservative views.)

Years before Thomas was appointed as Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he had already experienced what he perceived as the backlash of racial preference policies. An affirm

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rather, disagreed with some of the solutions of the civil rights activists. Thomas believed that the problems facing blacks in America were poverty and underachievement, along with drug abuse and teenage pregnancy. While his civil rights opponents did not argue with Thomas's naming of the key problems, they criticized him for having no solution. But Thomas survived the criticism of the civil rights professionals and probably thought those days were behind him--that is,until his Supreme Court confirmation hearings and the unexpected testimony of Professor Anita Hill against him. In October of 199 1, Timothy Phelps of Newsday and Nina Totenburg of National Public Radio broke the story of Hill's allegations, and the ensuing uproar forced the Senate to delay its scheduled vote to confirm Thomas (Rogers, 1992, 85). The Senate Judiciary Committee held unprecedented televised hearings on Hill's sexual harassment charges. But her charges apparently did not sway the entire Senate because it confirmed Thomas in a 52-48 vote. The Senate Judiciary Committee debates led to a great deal of commentary by journalists, politicians, and nationalists of every stripe. During those debates, Thomas suffered the worst criticism of his career.

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