Supreme Discomfort

January 15, 2007
The conservatism of the nation's second African-American Supreme Court justice has made him a pariah in the black community, an irony that centers this probing biography, expanded from the authors'Washington Post Magazine
profile. Thomas's rise from disadvantaged circumstances to Yale Law School, a meteoric government career and appointment to Thurgood Marshall's Court seat, Merida and Fletcher note, seems an affirmative action success story. Yet Thomas has opposed affirmative action, prisoners' rights, abortion and other planks of the liberal agenda, leading to ubiquitous complaints—the authors cite black leaders, prison inmates, even Thomas's relatives—that he's forgotten his roots. Merida and Fletcher present a lucid, well-researched account of Thomas's controversial life and jurisprudence, including evidence supporting Anita Hill's sexual harassment allegations, and a nuanced discussion of the politics of black authenticity. They portray Thomas as a conflicted man: a committed conservative with an ethos of self-reliance, who took advantage of affirmative action only to have his achievements tarnished by his own insecurities and others' suspicions of incompetence or hypocrisy. The authors' attempts to link his convictions to his psyche—they make much of his alleged resentment of light-skinned black professional elites—don't always click, but Thomas still emerges as a fascinating and emblematic figure.

March 15, 2007
Clarence Thomas has generated controversy ever since his appointment to succeed Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court in 1991. He is criticized as unqualified for his position, as being indifferent toward African Americans, and as a "clone" of his colleague Antonin Scalia. In spite of this controversy, Thomas is largely a mystery. In this biography, Merida and Fletcher, associate editor and reporter, respectively, at theWashington Post, explore Thomas's life and career from his roots in rural Georgia to the present. The authors are sympathetic to Thomas as a man without glossing over the controversy that surrounds him. They discuss at length his difficult relationship with his mother and sister, both of whom they were able to interview. (Thomas himself declined to be interviewed for this book.) For their chapter on Anita Hill's famous testimony at Thomas's Senate confirmation hearings, Merida and Fletcher interviewed parties on each side of the issue (though not Hill herself) but do not speculate whether Hill's allegations were true. They do relate evidence of Thomas's interest in pornography before his confirmation to the Court. All in all, this is a thoughtful and evenhanded treatment; recommended for all libraries.Becky Kennedy, Atlanta-Fulton P.L., GA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2007
" Washington Post" reporters Merida and Fletcher interviewed Supreme Court justice Thomas' family members, friends, colleagues, former clerks, fellow conservative justice Scalia, and even former President Bush, who named Thomas to the court--but not Thomas himself. This unauthorized biography looks at the complexities behind the second black Supreme Court justice, the conservative who replaced the iconic civil rights defender Thurgood Marshall. The authors dissect the contradictions in Thomas' background: the careful campaign that harkened back to boyhood poverty, when Thomas mostly grew up middle class; the transformation of a campus radical into a conservative and avowed opponent of affirmative action. Beyond recalling Thomas' background, the authors delve into how Thomas was formed by the tumultuous period of desegregation and emerging radical black consciousness. Thomas' wounds are deep, evidenced in a box of rejection letters from law firms he continues to keep. Reviled by the black community and virtually an outsider in his own family, Thomas maintains an animated persona among black conservatives but is known for his silence and disengagement on the bench. The authors explore the dynamics behind the nomination of Thomas and the dramatic hearing that drew national attention as senators squirmed while parsing charges of sexual harassment by Anita Hill. Thomas' "high-tech lynching" remark, which turned the hearing, was scripted for a man who'd chosen to distance himself from racial identification. This is a thoroughly absorbing look at a conflicted man whose views will impact American law and race relations for generations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)