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Clarence Thomas: Civil Rights Activist

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Clarence Thomas was born on June 23, 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia, growing up in a humble background, with only a mother to care for him and his brother and sister, eventually being sent to live in Savannah, Georgia with their grandparents. Justice Thomas originally wanted a career as a Catholic priest, but with the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King., Justice Thomas was perplexed to change his career path to become a lawyer and fight for civil rights. Moreover, Justice Thomas decided to attended Yale University and enter a legal career. In 1981 he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education one year later, Justice Thomas was appointed Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity …show more content…

In addition, Justice Thomas became one the founding members that established the Black Student Union at Holy Cross College. Justice Thomas returned to the South to work as an assistant to Missouri Attorney General John Danforth after earning his degree in Law. After several years as a lawyer for the agricultural giant Monsanto, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he eventually received several appointments from President Ronald Reagan, where his most prominent post was as the chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1982. Another president, George H.W. Bush, gave Thomas his first and only judgeship, nominating him to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Justice Sonia Sotomayer was born in 1954, making her a couple of years younger than Justice Thomas, is the courts third female justice. Demographically, she is the first Hispanic justice to ever sit on the bench while Justice Thomas is the second African American Justice to sit on the beach. Unlike Justice Thomas who began his service on the bench in 1991, She began her service with the Supreme Court in August 2009, nominated by President Barak Obama and replacing retired Justice David Souter. Prior to her winning a seat in the Supreme Court, Justice Sotomayer graduated from Yale Law School, just like Justice Thomas, and was admitted into the New York Bar. She then served as the assistant district attorney for New York County, which lead to her nomination by George Bush for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Although she kept a low public profile, her impact as a district judge lead her to be recognized and by Bill Clinton, who nominated her for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second

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