Clarence Thomas is the 106th person to occupy the position of Supreme Court Justice. In my opinion, Thomas is by far the most controversial person ever appointed to the Supreme Court. He is the second African American appointed to the Supreme Court, having replaced the late Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall is one of the most loved and respected Justices of the Supreme Court and is considered to be a hero among African Americans. Clarence Thomas is one of the most hated public figures among African Americans.

Many in the African American community refer to Clarence Thomas as an Uncle Tom, race traitor, Aunt Jemima, handkerchief head, Oreo, sell-out, chicken-biscuit-eating Uncle Tom. These strong opinions against Thomas are based upon his ultra conservative views. Early on in his tenure in the Supreme Court he attached himself to the far right justices, William Rehnquist and Anton Scalia. Since the retirement of Rehnquist and Sandra Day O'Connor, Thomas and Scalia have a strong conservative voting bloc with Supreme Court Justices Roberts and Alito. Generally, Thomas opposes abortion, affirmative action and is a supporter of State's rights. He is pro law enforcement and pro death penalty. Thomas considers himself a strict Constitutional constructionist. He looks to the original intent of the framers of the Constitution. His views are opposite to those who believe that in order to interpret the Constitution's meanings when determining its application to present day matters before the Court, the Constitution is a living and breathing document that changes and adapts to the country's and society's changes in morals, decency, as well as advances in science and technology.

After reading the book ["My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir," by Clarence Thomas, HarperCollins, 2007] I was left with the impression that Thomas, for the most part of his life, was a social misfit. He has had very few real friends. He is lonely, angry and bitter. By writing his autobiography, he is still seeking the approval of his grandfather who raised him in a very strict and sometimes abusive environment with very little affection. I was left with the feeling that Clarence Thomas does not like himself. I believe that he is ashamed of those African Americans who, for a variety of reasons, have not been able to lift themselves up by their bootstraps and obtain the American dream. He is angry at the middle and upper class blacks who view him as a social outcast.

Thomas was born in 1943 in Pinpoint, Georgia. His place of birth had approximately 500 residents, mostly African Americans who were the descendents of slaves that were given land after the Civil War. Thomas' father abandoned his family when Thomas was two and his mother was pregnant with a third child. He was then sent to live with his grandfather, Myers Anderson, and his grandmother in Savannah, Georgia. Thomas was "different" from the blacks that lived in his segregated neighborhood in Savannah. He spoke with a Gullah accent. He had thick lips, a thick nose and very dark skin. At his Catholic elementary school, he was called an ABC kid, ABC referring to America's Blackest Child. Thomas was different from his more urban playmates. He had country ways about him. His grandparents were very strict and rarely allowed him to participate in sports or other extracurricular activities. Clarence went to school and after school worked on his grandfather's delivery truck. During the summers he worked from sun-up to sundown on his grandfather's farm.

Myers Anderson believed in hard work and good education. He stressed to Clarence that he had to get a good education and work hard. Otherwise he'd turn out to be like one of those "no-good Negros" from Pinpoint. He let Clarence know that the door to his house opens both ways -- in and out. If Clarence did not do what was expected of him, he could leave the house, just as easy as he came in. The nuns at grammar school were strict. They taught and emphasized to Thomas the importance of speaking proper English. Thomas attended a Catholic high school. His grandfather always wanted him to be a priest. He spent his last two years at a Catholic boarding school. After high school, Thomas was off to St. Louis to attend Immaculate Conception Seminary. There was only one other black in his class. He suffered racism by his other classmates. He decided to leave the seminary when he realized that the Catholic Church was not doing much to stop or prevent racism in America. During the time of Martin Luther King's assassination, one student mentioned that he was happy that King was killed. That was the final straw in determining Thomas to leave the seminary and abandon his ambitions to be a priest.

Thomas returned to Pinpoint to find a very disappointed grandfather. His grandfather reminded him that the door to the house opened both ways. He was kicked out of the house for dropping out of school. Thomas was broke and, for a brief moment, homeless.

After working for a while, Thomas was able to enroll in Holy Cross University. He was part of the first group of African American students to attend Holy Cross as a result of an outreach program to track minorities. Most of his classmates were from the northeast. Many of them were from urban areas. While at Holy Cross, Clarence Thomas did flirt with the black power movement. He wore an applejack hat, an army coat and drank Ripple wine. He was involved in a student protest where many of the students threatened or did withdraw from school. Thomas moved into an all-black wing of a dormitory that the black students demanded. He was against the students self-segregating themselves and in protest he brought his white roommate to live with him. Thomas had outstanding grades at Holy Cross. He was accepted to Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania and Yale. He attended Yale University. He married his first wife just before going to law school. Much to his disappointment, Thomas' grandfather did not attend his graduation or his wedding.

Thomas claims to have felt the stigma of affirmative action while at Yale Law School. He claims to have felt as though the white students viewed him as getting into school on inferior grades and qualifications.

Thomas found it very difficult to find a job prior to graduating from law school. He interviewed with several Wall Street law firms as well as other law firms in major cities just to be turned down. White students with lower academic records were hired at firms that turned Thomas down. He accepted a job with Missouri Attorney General, John Danforth. He was off to St. Louis to the State Attorney General's Office. While there, Thomas gained valuable experience in arguing appeals and trying civil matters.

Danforth was elected to the United States Senate. He took Thomas with him to Washington to work on his staff as a legislative assistant. While in Washington, Thomas got involved with the Black Republican Conservative movement. This select group of Republican conservative blacks were opposed to bussing, government set asides and affirmative actions. They had a belief that African Americans must uplift themselves through hard work and education. Thomas found the views among his black Republican conservatives to be consistent with the values that he learned from his grandfather as well as the nuns that taught him in grammar and high school. Most of the Congressional staffers in Washington that were African American were Democrat and shunned Thomas because of his conservative views.

In 1981 President Ronald Reagan recruited Thomas to become Assistant Secretary of Civil Rights in the Education Department. Later, he became the Director of the EEOC. He had some successes and failures at the EEOC. He got the Agency into a new building. He abandoned the policy of focusing attention on class action lawsuits that relied on statistical evidence. Under Thomas's leadership, the EEOC's enforcement of the individual employment discrimination actions increased. On the contrary, he was criticized for the Agency's large backload of cases. While working in Washington, Thomas was divorced and married for a second time to a white woman. In 1990 he was appointed to the Court of Appeals by President George Bush. In 1991 he was nominated to the Supreme Court by George Bush.

The book discusses in great detail the confirmation process. It is at this stage of Thomas' life that he suffered his worst wounds. Initially it looked like a sure thing for appointment despite opposition from civil rights groups and Democrats. Thomas was hijacked by a late minute witness, Anita Hill. Hill's testimony changed everything. Anita Hill formerly worked for Thomas. She alleged that he sexually harassed her. She gave dramatic testimony about Clarence's description of pornographic movies and referring to himself as "Long Dong Silver."

Initially, civil rights groups and Democrats were against Thomas, but the opposition numbers were not enough to deny confirmation. The Anita Hill allegations caused the feminists to join in opposition to tip the scales against his confirmation. Ironically, Thomas felt like the character Bigger Thomas in the Richard Wright novel Native Son. Like Bigger Thomas, Clarence Thomas claims to have been falsely accused of sexually molesting a woman. Bigger Thomas was hung after his wrongful conviction. Clarence Thomas likened the confirmation process to a "high-tech lynching."

Eventually Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court by one of the slimmest margins 48-52. While on the Court, he aligned himself to the far right conservative judges. He is well known among conservative rightwing circles. Among his social contacts are the late North Carolina Senator Strom Thurman. as well as radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.

Thomas does not talk much about his decisions as Supreme Court Justice. As a reader, the failure of the book to discuss the cases that he presided over is disappointing. As a lawyer who is familiar with rules governing judicial conduct, the book's failure to discuss specific cases is understandable. I find it troubling that someone from his background who has suffered racism, the effects of segregation and discrimination would have such extreme conservative views. For instance, in the case of Hudson v. McMillan, in an 8-1 decision, Thomas decided that an inmate did not suffer from cruel and unusual punishment when he was beaten up by prison guards. The inmate sustained a cracked lip, loosened teeth, broken dental plate, cuts and bruises. Thomas argued that the framers did not intend more significant injury for the Eighth Amendment protection.

Thomas is not sympathetic to death row inmates who may have received an unfair trial and wrongfully convicted. His extreme pro-death penalty views are ironic considering the fact that he considers himself to be wrongfully accused and a victim of a "high-tech lynching" in the Anita Hill matter. In the case of a death row inmate, Thomas Miller, Clarence Thomas dissented. That case involved the jury selection process where the prosecutor used 91% of his property challenges to strike minorities and did not use appropriate challenges to strike similarly situated white prospective jurors. Thomas believed that the jury selection process which made it impossible for blacks to serve on juries and may have resulted in a wrongful conviction was constitutional. His decision in Grutter v. Burley, where Thomas voices opposition to affirmative action programs that he believes stigmatizes blacks were either promoted above their ability or subject to suspicion that they are not qualified. It is troubling that he does not find affirmative action programs necessary when he himself was a victim of racial discrimination when his job applications to law firms were rejected despite his superior qualifications.

Clarence Thomas is confused. He is hurting. He is angry. Although Thomas has tried to become the type of man that his grandfather Meyers Anderson would want him to become, I believe that if Meyers Anderson were alive today, he would still be disappointed in his grandson Clarence Thomas. Meyers Anderson wanted his grandson to become a priest who would be "charitable" to the poor and less fortunate. Thomas, in my opinion, is opposed to any program that will help the poor and the unfortunate other than telling them that they must pick themselves up by their own bootstraps. He fails to understand that the only reason to look down on a fellow human being is to pick them up.