Great piece for a great man...Supreme court justice Clarence Thomas
Justice Clarence Thomas ? my friend
For 16 years I sat patiently, I sat silently while they mercilessly slandered your name. For 16 years I sat patiently, I sat silently while they called you all manner of epithets: “Uncle Tom,” “Uncle Clarence Thomas,” “marginal,” “a joke,” “incompetent,” “a pornographer,” “traitor,” “a slave.” For 16 years I sat patiently, I sat silently while they caricatured you in blackface as “Aunt Jemima” and a diminutive lawn jockey on the cover of a national magazine (George Curry’s Emerge [now defunct]). For 16 years I sat patiently, I sat silently as propagandists like New York Times journalist Adam Cohen explained your 16 years of silence on the bench with claims like: “He is afraid that if he speaks he will reveal his ignorance about the case.”
For 16 years I sat patiently, I sat silently while our own people – black law professors, academics, doctors, lawyers, judges, civil rights activists, mayors, black preachers, teachers, federal and state employees, politicians, journalists, political commentators, Oprah – improved their public standing and launched lucrative careers vilifying your name without just cause … yet, I sat patiently, I sat silently … until now.
I consider Justice Clarence Thomas, born this day 59 years ago, one of the closest friends I will ever have in this life. However, he is not a friend in the traditional sense of knowing someone you grew up with, or even someone you see often or visit with regularly. I have never met the man. “Well, Ellis, if you never met Justice Thomas, how can you call him your ‘friend’?” Justice Thomas is my friend because 16 years ago when I was a freshman law student about to flunk out of law school, this man sent me letters of encouragement urging me “Onwards ever – backwards, never
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Ellis Washington is a former staff editor of the Michigan Law Review and law clerk at the Rutherford Institute. He is a professor of Constitutional Law, Legal Ethics, and Contracts at the National Paralegal College, a counselor at the American College of Education, and a founding board member of Salt and Light Global. Washington is a co-host of "Joshua's Trial," a radio show of Christian conservative thought. A graduate of John Marshall Law School and post-grad work at Harvard Law School, his latest law review article is titled, "Social Darwinism in Nazi Family and Inheritance Law." Washington’s latest book is a 2-volume collection of essays and Socratic dialogues – "The Progressive Revolution" (University Press of America, 2013). Visit his popular law/political blog, "EllisWashingtonReport.com, an essential repository dedicated to educating the next generation of young conservative intellectuals
Justice Clarence Thomas ? my friend
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