Justice Thomas speaks at Harvard Law (video)
February 11, 2013
Justice Clarence Thomas has become known as a quiet presence on the Supreme Court. But on Jan. 29, members of the Harvard Law School community got to hear him speak—and he did so with great humor and warmth.
As part of the Herbert W. Vaughan Lecture series, Thomas participated in a conversation with HLS Dean Martha Minow, after a day in which he met with faculty and students.
In introducing Thomas—a graduate of Yale Law School—Minow said that he had turned down his admission to Harvard Law. She noted that he’d found it “too large, and if I’m right, too conservative.” This elicited laughter from the audience filling Milstein East, and a smile from Thomas—both of which recurred many times over the course of the evening.
Minow asked the justice to say something about his life as a young person. Thomas grew up poor in segregated Georgia and he recalled that although the times were difficult, he “had a good life,” and is grateful for the schooling he received, and for the “real push” he felt to be well educated.
“All of you must have someone,” he said, “who took you aside and gave you that affinity for learning, which has stuck with you.” For Thomas, it was two women working in a segregated library in Savannah. He said he still remembers the day in 1955 when he heard one of them read a story by Dr. Seuss, and he got his first glimpse of the worlds contained in books.
He also recalled with gratitude those who raised him. “I grew up with people who were not lettered. In that environment, my relatives and neighbors treasured education the way a person who was hungry would treasure food. They understood it as something they never had a chance to have.”
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A Different Tale Of Clarence Thomas
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Originally Posted by Abbey
