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Request a DemoJustice Clarence Thomas’ Hard Right Conservatism Leaves His Hometown Perplexed
PIN POINT, Georgia – Amid the chinquapin and moss-draped oak trees that line Shipyard Creek, a sign at the sharp turn off State Road 204 welcomes visitors to the small unincorporated Chatham County community of Pin Point, the birthplace of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
In what might be seen as a possibly unintended nod to the controversy that often surrounds the Supreme Court’s most conservative justice, the Pin Point welcome sign marking the town as Thomas’ birthplace is marred by red spray paint.
In Savannah, where Thomas spent much of his childhood, the name plaque on the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Clarence Thomas Center was removed earlier last week amid outcry from students following the Supreme Court’s ruling to reverse the landmark Roe v. Wade right to abortion case.
A recent visit to Clarence Thomas’ hometown gives some insight into the man and his hard political lean right, voicing some views that have solidified the enigmatic justice’s reputation as the High Court’s most conservative judge.
“Black people are conservative in several areas … but that's a cultural thing. But politically, I'd have to say he's to the right of most people in Liberty County and Chatham County,” said Liberty County state Rep. Al Williams (D-Midway). About 12% of Black voters in Georgia identify as Republican, according to surveys by the Pew Research Center.
The entrance sign to Pin Point, Ga., is marked with graffiti in this photo taken in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
How Thomas came to adopt his views may appear counterintuitive to many. As a judge, Thomas is what constitutional law scholars call a strict “originalist” – meaning a belief that all statements in The Constitution should be interpreted literally and according to the understanding at the time of its ratification in 1789, when slavery in the U.S. was legal and widely practiced.
Thomas grew up in the segregated Jim Crow South, hailing from the poor, but tight-knit and culturally rich, Gullah Geechee people – descendants of West and Central Africans brought to the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia to work as slaves on rice, cotton and indigo plantations, according to the National Park Service. Over the past century-plus, the Gullah Geechee have maintained the heritage of the community, including its dialect and food traditions.
Few Gullah Geechee remain who remember the Pin Point and Savannah of Thomas’ childhood, and fewer still are open to talking about Thomas. “I’ve got nothing to say about Clarence Thomas,” was a common refrain when State Affairs visited the region.
Near Savannah, in Liberty County’s Sunbury community where Thomas spent many summers, 89-year-old Albert Greene Sr., a mechanic and cousin of Thomas', recalled knowing Thomas’ grandfather, Myers Anderson, who Thomas went to live with along with his grandmother at the age of 6.
“He was a tough old man,” Greene said, recalling that Anderson would often repeat the saying, “When you know the Lord, you’ve got power.”
Anderson was a prominent businessman in Savannah’s Black community. After he converted to Catholicism, Thomas joined the faith, setting him apart from the more prevalent Baptist beliefs of his kin.
“He [Anderson] took those two boys {Thomas and his brother] in and said they’d be serious men and not be sloppy,” Greene said. He and other neighbors said they could see few links to the Gullah community Thomas hailed from that would explain his political views.
Albert Greene Sr. stands outside his home in Pin Point, Ga., in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
“You think Clarence is conservative? His granddaddy made him seem moderate,” said Williams, who also knew Anderson.
Myron Magnet, author of “Clarence Thomas and the Lost Constitution,” a 2019 book that analyzes Thomas' jurisprudence, said, “His grandfather taught him that his fate was in his own hands, and despite that America was a racist country, there was the opportunity to forge his own path.”
Magnet added that Thomas had a “second conversion experience and realized his grandfather was right” when Thomas attended a protest against the Vietnam War at Harvard Square in 1970 that turned violent. The experience left Thomas feeling “appalled, and feeling rage and hatred,” Magnet said.
After graduating Yale Law School, Thomas continued to question liberal policies aimed at improving racial inequities through the lens of the “Emersonian self-reliance” of his grandfather’s worldview, said Magnet, referencing the 19th Century writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. “It was individualism squared,” Magnet said.
The Pin Point Heritage Museum located in Pin Point, Ga., is shown in this photo taken in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
A Catholic Upbringing
Following the 6-3 Supreme Court reversal of Roe v. Wade, Thomas, in a concurring opinion, went further than the majority opinion. He took aim at the landmark cases that protect same-sex marriage and access to contraception and that make it unconstitutional for states to criminalize sodomy or oral sex.
“[W]e should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell,” Thomas wrote, adding: “After overruling these demonstrably erroneous decisions, the question would remain whether other constitutional provisions guarantee the myriad rights that our substantive due process cases have generated.”
State Rep. Williams, a 74-year-old, 1960s civil rights activist and himself of Gullah heritage, didn’t mince words when talking about Thomas’ political views: “The only thing he took with him was his skin,” Williams said.
Thomas, through Supreme Court staff, declined requests for an interview or to comment for this story.
State Rep. Al Williams stands outside the Dorchester Academy in Midway, Ga., in this photo taken in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
Thomas’ Catholic upbringing and private Catholic education at St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church in Savannah, have a lot to do with how Williams and Thomas – despite hailing from similar cultural backgrounds – came to such different political positions, said Williams. “He was very sheltered,” Williams said, recalling that Thomas' grandfather held conservative views far different than those of the Black community at the time.
Despite their political differences, Williams recalled meeting Thomas in person a few times. Williams described Thomas as pleasant with a great laugh, and as a person who ”enjoyed a cigar.”
In support of Thomas’ 1991 Supreme Court nomination, Williams organized a bus of 50 to 60 people from the community to drive to Washington, D.C., and lobby senators to support the appointment. Williams, whose politics “could not be further to the left if I ran,” he said, now regrets that level of support, a feeling he thinks is shared today by all but a rare few people on that bus.
And even other passed-down memories are harder for some to shake.
A boat sits in marshlands near the Pin Point Heritage Museum in Pin Point, Ga., in this photo taken in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
Taylor Washington, 45, recalls a childhood memory of her late grandmother, Pin Point native Emma Ree Wright, that forever defined her view of Thomas.
To celebrate Thomas’ 1991 ascension to the court, Washington said Pin Point residents organized a party in Thomas’ honor at the local community hall. On the evening of the event, her grandmother took a limousine from Savannah to Pin Point for the festivities. “They threw one of the biggest bashes ever; it was something to remember,” Washington said. “It was like: Yes! One of our own has made it to the Supreme Court. Just everybody was ecstatic, everybody was happy, there was overwhelming joy.”
Except, Thomas didn’t show.
“I can remember sitting down in my living room. And we got into a conversation about it,” Washington said, recalling that moment with her grandmother. “And she said it hurt. Those were her words: ‘Clarence Thomas hurt me,’ and then I don't think it was so much of just her personally, I think she was speaking for everybody.”
The plaque commemorating Savannah College of Art and Design’s Clarence Thomas Center is shown missing in this photo taken in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
'No Hero Here'
Thomas’ Supreme Court nomination was contentious when allegations of sexual misconduct against him emerged and the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, helmed by then-U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, heard compelling testimony from Anita Hill, who was attorney-advisor to Thomas when he served as assistant director of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in 1981. Thomas was resolute in his denials of the sexual misconduct allegations, famously calling the proceedings a “disgrace” and a “high-tech lynching.”
Thomas also referred to the experience as a “living hell” to which he would prefer assassination. Today, many wonder whether the experience, perhaps mixed with resentment, further hardened Thomas' already conservative views.
The assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and racist remarks about King that Thomas has said he recalls hearing in seminary school, led Thomas to stray from conservatism and Catholicism for a time, to the outrage of his grandfather. It’s a chapter of his life he has spoken about in numerous lectures, and written about in his memoir.
While a student on scholarship at Holy Cross, Thomas participated in progressive activism and met his first wife, Kathy Ambush, who grew up middle class in Worcester, MA.
Magnet, who has met with and maintained correspondence with Thomas since 1994, said Thomas’ concurring opinion overturning Roe V. Wade, is “not at all surprising” when looking at past opinions, in which he has routinely criticized the concept of substantive due process which provides for rights such as abortion access and same-sex marriage, among others.
Besides a mention on the road sign, and a historical marker in town, there are few traces of Thomas in Pin Point. At the Pin Point Heritage Museum, built on the site of the crab and oyster cannery where Thomas’ mother and much of the local Gullah community worked between 1926 and 1985, Thomas makes a cameo in a 35-minute documentary for visitors to watch before touring the site.
The crab factory where Justice Clarence Thomas' mother worked is housed in the Pin Point Heritage Museum in Pin Point, Ga., shown here in this photo taken in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
He speaks about the poverty of the place and playing outdoors because of the heat. He mentions his nickname there was “Boy” and his brother Myers was “Peanut.” An engraved slab commemorates Myers, who died in 2000, and was, according to Thomas' memoir, a Democrat.
Towards the end of the video Thomas analogizes America to a quilt, with Pin Point’s Gullah Geechee being a patch in it, before making an appeal to patriotism. “Slavery and discrimination and segregation tatter the American experience, but it’s still our experience,” Thomas says in the video.
While there is a certain amount of respect and pride that a fellow Georgia Gullah Geechee ascended to the Supreme Court, his political views “are an enigma,” said Williams, the state lawmaker from Liberty County.
Back in Liberty County, standing on the porch of the Dorchester Academy – once the primary site of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Citizenship Education Program, an incubator of a generation of civil rights leaders, and where a young Williams spent his summers before being drafted to fight in Vietnam, Williams remarked on Thomas’ notable absence from the Dorchester Academy, now a museum.
“What favorite son from Savannah to Liberty County would have ascended to the Supreme Court, and you won't find one picture of him in a Black museum or anything Black – who else would that have been?” Williams said before pausing and shaking his head. “No, no, no. No hero here.”
An American flag flies of marshlands near the Pin Point Heritage Museum in Pin Point, Ga., in this photo taken in June of 2022. (Credit: Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon for State Affairs)
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Weekend read: 70 years ago, Georgia bucked landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision
When the U.S. Supreme Court threw open the doors of public schools to Black students 70 years ago, Southern states — such as Georgia — did not go quietly when Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka became the law of the land. “For six or seven years nothing happened. It was like it hadn’t …
Turnout battle: More Republicans casting ballots in early voting for general primary
The Gist
Whether they’re concerned with a Georgia Supreme Court race or women’s reproductive rights, voters showed up to cast early ballots this week in the Georgia primary election. And Republicans embraced the opportunity more than Democrats, continuing a trend in recent years.
“This isn’t Democratic voters becoming Republicans. This isn’t even a massive turnout of Republicans,” Atlanta political strategist Fred Hicks told State Affairs. “What it is is Democrats are disaffected and they’re staying home in key blocs, particularly African Americans.”
At Chastain Park Recreation Center, Atlanta attorney Stephen Mooney cast his vote with an eye on a Georgia Supreme Court race.
“I felt it was important to cast a vote. We have one candidate who’s putting his personal views over just calling balls and strikes. I want to make my voice known,” Mooney said.
Democratic U.S. Rep. John Barrow, who is running a campaign centered on protecting women’s reproductive rights, is challenging incumbent Justice Andrew Pinson.
Mooney, who identifies as Republican, said he typically votes early in elections. For the upcoming cycle, he said he’s concerned with crime, the economy and world affairs, including the conflict in Gaza.
Katherine Hernacki, who mostly votes Democrat, said she tries to cast ballots at every opportunity to make sure her registration didn’t expire and to preserve her vote.
“I would say that right now one of the biggest motivating factors for me is protecting women’s rights to reproductive freedom,” Hernacki, 50, told State Affairs.
She and Mooney both said current Georgia state officials have been doing well, specifically when it comes to the economy.
What’s Happening
As of Friday morning, according to GeorgiaVotes.com, 453,035 Georgians had cast early votes. Republicans outpaced Democrats, 242,140 to 203,305. There were 7,545 nonpartisan ballots cast.
The Secretary of State could not provide the party breakdown of primary election turnout for 2020 and 2022.
The total turnout for the 2024 primary is 36% lower than it was in 2022.
“This will be the fourth straight statewide election where Republicans have outpaced Democrats,” Hicks said.
More Republican voters turned out in the 2022 primary and general election as well as the presidential primary in March and now this one, said Hicks, who has worked on Democratic and Republican campaigns across the country for the past 20 years.
There was a little positive news for Democrats: The Georgia Secretary of State’s office said more Democrats — 15,008 — voted absentee than Republicans. Records show 14,835 Republicans cast mail-in ballots.
Why It Matters
Primaries historically have had low turnout, and this election cycle is no different. As of Friday morning, 6.4% of Georgia’s 7 million registered voters had cast ballots in person or by mail.
Ahead of the general election in November, primaries give voters an idea of who the candidates are. As campaigns continue, citizens get an early opportunity to form their political opinions.
What’s Next?
Friday, May 17, is the last day of early voting in Georgia’s primary election. Polls will reopen Tuesday, May 21, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The general election will happen Nov. 5.
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Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
Contact Nava Rawls at [email protected].
New middle Georgia House district up for grabs due to influential incumbent’s departure
The Gist
For the first time in over a decade, voters in parts of middle Georgia’s Bibb and Houston counties will vote for a new state House representative.
House District 143 is a newly redrawn district that now extends from Macon to Warner Robins. That redistricting prompted the departure of longtime incumbent Rep. James Beverly, D-Macon. His term ends in January.
Democrat Anissa Jones and Republican Barbara Boyer are vying for Beverly’s seat. Both are uncontested in the primary.
The two appear on the May 21 primary ballots, but the primary is, in effect, a dress rehearsal for the Nov. 5 general election because neither has a primary opponent.
Jones is a chiropractor who has held numerous seats on civic and local government boards. Boyer is a retired attorney who now runs an antique shop. Georgia is an open primary state, meaning voters can choose the party ballot they wish to vote for.
What’s Happening
House Minority Leader Beverly announced in March he would not seek re-election, in part, because his district had been redrawn. A federal judge ordered state lawmakers to redo their electoral maps because they diluted Black voting power.
Before the remapping, House District 143 was largely Democrat, majority Black and consisted primarily of Macon County. The redrawn district now includes parts of Macon and extends 20 miles south to Warner Robins and remains majority Black.
Boyer, a political newcomer, said Republicans asked her to run because of her legal background. She sees the redistricting as good for middle Georgia.
“Macon and Warner Robins have always sort of been merged together in a lot of ways, and I just don’t see there’s a problem with it.”
The new House district, for example, now includes parts of nearby Houston County, which has “a pretty good school system,” Boyer said.
“I’m interested in how they run their school system compared to how Bibb County runs theirs,” she added. “Our [Macon-Bibb] district really needs a lot of help with their school system.”
If elected, Boyer said she would work to improve education, curb crime and bring more businesses to middle Georgia.
“I think I cross party lines pretty good,” she said. “I have a lot of Democratic friends and a very diverse group of friends. So I think I have a better chance of getting some Democrat and independent votes.”
Jones is a Macon native. She is the former vice chair of the Macon Water Authority Board, an alum of Leadership Macon and a past president of the Main Street Macon Board.
Jones did not return calls from State Affairs for comment.. Her top issues include public safety, economic development and more investment in infrastructure, according to her website.
Why It Matters
The winner of House District 143 will fill a vital seat that Beverly has held since 2011. He often advocated for legislation addressing health inequities, including a last-minute proposal by state Democratic leaders to expand Medicaid.
The Peach Care Plus Act would have let the state get a federal waiver to buy private health insurance for people who make around $20,000 a year. The measure failed. Beverly, a Macon optometrist, also pushed for legislation that would reduce maternal mortality among Black women.
He also led the Democrats’ effort to pass the Safe at Home Act, a bipartisan bill to protect tenants’ rights. The bipartisan bill requires rental properties to be “fit for human habitation.” Landlords must give three days’ notice and can’t shut off cooling before an eviction. Gov. Brian Kemp signed the bill into law in April.
Beverly said his decision to leave was also based on the likelihood that Democrats will not win a majority in the 180-member House.
In addition to Beverly’s departure as House minority leader, the Senate also will lose its minority leader, Sen. Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain. She has served since 1999. The two are among 16 legislators who are retiring. Most of the 236-member Georgia General Assembly will be running for office, many unopposed.
What’s Next?
Early voters casting ballots in person have until Friday at 5 p.m. Poll officials, however, have the discretion to keep the polls open until 7 p.m., a Georgia Secretary of State official said. Polls will reopen Tuesday, primary election day, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Residents voting in Tuesday’s primary can check their precinct location here.
Boyer and Jones will face each other in the Nov. 5 general election. The winner will succeed Beverly, who will leave office in January.
Meet the House District 143 primary candidates
Barbara Boyer
Age: 68
Residence: Macon
Occupation: Retired attorney who now owns an antique store in Macon. “I love to stay busy.”
Party affiliation: Republican
Top issues: Improving education, attracting more businesses and addressing public safety, especially encroaching crime.
Campaign cash on hand: $600 as of May 7
Family: She and husband Wesley, a bankruptcy attorney, have a daughter and granddaughter
Dr. Anissa Jones
Residence: Macon
Occupation: Chiropractor
Party affiliation: Democrat
Top issues: Public safety, economic development, more investment infrastructure.
Campaign cash on hand: $30,679.92 as of May 6
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
All you need to know heading into the May 21 primary
Gist
Georgia’s primary is only days away, and there’s a lot to unpack.
The May 21 primary will be the first time some Georgians will be voting in new districts for state and congressional candidates. They’ll also be voting in local races for sheriff, judges, school board or county commission members. Primary winners who have challengers will go on to compete in the Nov. 5 general election. Georgia is an open primary state, meaning voters can choose the party ballot they wish to vote for.
This year, Georgians who voted by absentee ballot in the primary could face challenges due to mail delivery delays.
What’s Happening
North Georgia and metro Atlanta are seeing significant mail delivery delays. The holdup, according to media reports, appears to be at the United States Postal Services’ new Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto. The problem has led to dangerous situations in which people are not getting critical medication.
Georgia’s U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff recently grilled USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on the delays. Ossoff told DeJoy during an April 16 hearing that on-time delivery rates were abysmal. He said 66% of outbound first-class mail had been delivered on time while 36% of inbound mail had been delivered on time in the past three months.
DeJoy blamed the problem on the difficulty in condensing operations at the facility.
With the approaching primary, state lawmakers are concerned mail delays could disrupt the election process.
Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for the Secretary of State, told State Affairs that Georgia voters are ready.
“Georgia voters are already registered,” he said. “They know how they like to vote. More than half of them vote early. About 5% vote absentee by mail, just in general, and then the rest are voting on election day. So we’ve been able to set up systems that are familiar with Georgia voters so that the percentage who might be worried about their absentee-by-mail ballots are relatively small.”
Why It Matters
Georgia emerged as one of the country’s most important political battleground states during the 2020 election. The Peach State will once again play a key role in deciding who wins the 2024 presidential election in November.
In the May 21 primary, Georgia voters will whittle down their choices for whom they’ll send to Congress and to the state capitol next year.
Under a federal court-approved redistricting process last year, Georgia now has new congressional and state district electoral maps. Those maps created one majority Black seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, five new majority-Black districts in the state House and two in the state Senate.
The redistricting resulted in new seats, intriguing matchups and former politicians returning to the fray. You can see the newly drawn maps here.
What’s Next?
Here’s what you need to know to ensure a smooth voting process:
To vote early.
Early voting is April 29 to May 17. Find your polling place here.
To vote absentee.
Here’s what you can do to avoid problems if you vote absentee:
- Get your absentee ballot application done early. You can request an absentee ballot here. (The registration deadline for the May 21 primary was April 22.)
- Track your application through Georgia BallotTrax. You must have a valid absentee request on file with your county board of elections to see your absentee ballot status in Georgia BallottTrax.
- If you’ve been having mail delays, place your completed absentee ballot in an official drop box during advanced voting instead of using the United States Postal Service. Check your county voter registration and election office for drop box locations. And, yes, your absentee ballot counts. It is counted in the final tally, not just close races.
- If you change your mind about voting absentee and decide to vote in person, take your absentee ballot to your local election office, where workers will void it.
- If you need to contact your county election office, find that information here.
Update: This story has been updated with the mail-in ballot registration deadline for the May 21 primary.
Have questions, comments or tips? Contact Tammy Joyner on X @lvjoyner or at [email protected].
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