Freedom and Capitalism, Ingenuity, Hardwork and Discipline

 

Clarence Thomas

June 23, 1948 -

Clarence Thomas's father abandoned the family when Thomas was two years old. After the family house was destroyed by fire, Thomas's mother, a maid, remarried, and Thomas and his brother were sent to live with their grandfather. He was educated in Savannah, Georgia, at an all-African American Roman Catholic primary school run by white nuns and then at a boarding-school seminary, where he graduated as the only African American in his class. He graduated from Holy Cross College in Massachusetts, with a bachelor's degree in 1971. He received a law degree from Yale University in 1974. Thomas was an assistant attorney general in Missouri (1974–77), a lawyer with the Monsanto Company (1977–79), and a legislative assistant to Republican Senator John C. Danforth of Missouri (1979–81). In the Republican presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush, Thomas served as assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Education (1981–82), chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC; 1982–90), and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal District in Washington, D.C. (1990–91), a post to which he was appointed by George H. W. Bush. He was later nominated by President Bush and became Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court.