Clarence Thomas is a famous associate judge on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. He is an American. He was chosen for the job by President George H. W. Bush, and he has been there since 1991.
He has been on the Court longer than any other African-American, except for Anthony Kennedy, who left in 2018. He was born in the city of Pin Point, Georgia. When his father left the family, his grandpa raised him in Savannah’s poor Gullah area.
He was raised as a devout Catholic, but the church’s lack of action against racism bothered him, so he chose to become a priest instead. He gave up his dream of becoming a priest so he could get a better education at the College of the Holy Cross and Yale Law School.
When he was a student at Yale, conservative writers like Thomas Sowell made a big change in his thinking. He went from being a progressive to a conservative.
How Did Clarence Thomas Grow Up?
In June 1948, Clarence Thomas was born in Pin Point, Georgia. He went to Conception Seminary College for a short time, but he left after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. Thomas later said he chose to leave because he heard a classmate say, “Good.
Just one day after the murder, someone said, “I hope that son of a whore is dead.” Clarence learned from this that the Catholic church wasn’t doing enough to stop racism among its future priests.
He then moved to College of the Holy Cross and started there as a junior. He helped start the Black Student Union at his school. He chose English literature as his major and got his degree in 1971.
During college, Thomas was the right age to be sent to Vietnam by the Army. He was able to put off the draft by getting a series of deferments, but when he graduated, he was put on the list of men who were very likely to be chosen and given the number 1-A.
He was asked to come in for a medical test, but he failed it because his spine was curved. Because of his health problem, he could not be chosen. Next, Clarence went to Yale Law School. In 1974, he got his Juris Doctor degree, which means he was in the middle of his class.
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What is Clarence Thomas’ Net Worth and Salary?
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court. Based on his most recent financial report, Clarence Thomas has a net worth of $1 million.
Clarence’s most recent financial report says that his net worth is at least $600,000 and at most $1 million. As a Supreme Court judge, he makes $220,000 a year.
He was put forward by George H. W. Bush to replace Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court. After a difficult and controversial confirmation hearing in October 1991, he was sworn in.
Career Life in Clarence Thomas
After finishing, Clarence went to Missouri to become a lawyer. After passing the bar exam, he got a job as an assistant to Missouri’s attorney general, John Danforth. From 1974 to 1977, he worked in this job.
Then, in 1977, the Monsanto Chemical Company hired him as an attorney. Clarence went to Washington, D.C., in 1979 to work for John Danforth again. By that time, Danforth had been elected to the US Senate.
From 1979 to 1981, Clarence worked as a legislative assistant for the Senate Commerce Committee. He mostly worked on energy problems.
Clarence was the Assistant Secretary of Education for the Office for Civil Rights from 1981 to 1982. From May 1982 to March 1990, Thomas was the head of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
George H. W. Bush chose him to be a Federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in October 1989.
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Supreme Court
In 1990, when George H. W. Bush was looking to replace Justice William Brennan on the Supreme Court, he thought about putting Clarence Thomas on the court. However, he chose David Souter instead.
When Justice Thurgood Marshall stepped down a year later, Bush chose Clarence as his replacement. The approval hearings for Clarence would soon become one of the most controversial and contentious events of the 1990s.
Thomas was accused of sexual abuse, and the story made the front page of the newspaper. A woman named Anita Hill made the claims.
Hill worked for Thomas when they both worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the US Department of Education. At first, Anita didn’t say anything about the claims in public.
When word got out that Anita had been interviewed by the FBI, the claims became public. Hill was asked to appear when the accusations were made public.
In October 1991, Anita said that Thomas sexually harassed her when he was her boss at two different government jobs. The sessions were shown on TV. She said he asked her out a lot and often said things to her that were sexually charged and frank.
Thomas is said to have bragged about “his own sexual prowess” while talking about his body parts. The Supreme Court of the United States officially made Clarence Thomas an Associate Justice on October 15, 1991.
