Born and raised in Savannah,Georgia, Clarence Thomas was the first of his family to go to college, eventually attending Yale Law School. From there he progressed up the legal ladder, eventually being nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H W Bush.
Despite his success, Thomas has said his Yale degree did little to help. Awarded during an era of affirmative action at Yale, he says many potential future employers assumed he had been given the degree rather than having earned it.
Thomas is the second black man to sit on the court, after Thurgood Marshall.
His confirmation hearing was a bitter affair as the Democrats used thin allegations of sexual misconduct to attempt to prevent him from joining the court. In fact, Andrew Breitbart credits the hearing as a watershed moment in his life, that opened his eyes to the evils of the Democratic party, causing him to throw off his adopted left-leaning views and forge a new path for Conservatives.
Thomas is described as a textualist when it comes to interpreting the Constitution, focusing on the original meaning of the text. He’s also an advocate of natural law and is a practising Catholic.
His thinking was inspired, in part, by Thomas Sowell in Race and Economics, as well as Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.
He is generally considered to be the Supreme Court’s most Conservative member and admit to having “very strong libertarian leanings”.
Not one for interviews, Justice Thomas is a critic of the media and has said that, “One of the reasons I don’t do media interviews is, in the past, the media often has its own script.”
My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir
There isn’t much that Clarence Thomas hasn’t had to overcome.
A black man who experienced racism first hand, he also had battle against the injustices created by the affirmative action movement that cast doubts on his actual achievements.
And then came his confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court, a vile attack-squad and unfounded accusations of sexual misconduct designed by the Democratic political machine to prevent him from ever rising to sit on the highest court in the land.
Frank, honest and sometimes brutally hard to read, this book is filled with suffering and injustice. It’s also the quintessential story of the American Dream, with Thomas using his own talents and a frontier spirit to get the job done.
Race and Economics – Thomas Sowell
Native Son – Richard Wright
Back Boy – Richard Wright
Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
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