Clarence Thomas: Supreme Court Justice (People to Know)

Rating:
Summary: Judge Who?
Review: In honor of Black History Month I encouraged my son to read this biography of the second black man to become a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. I would not recommend this book to any other readers, except for its unintentional humor.

The author never mentions one of the primary obstacles that Judge Thomas had to overcome, namely, that he was raised speaking the Georgia Sea Island dialect of Gullah, and had to learn English before attending school.

The author states that young Clarence Thomas approved of the community outreach of the Black Panther Party in California. No clarification is ever given to that statement, leaving one with the impression that a Justice of the Supreme Court condones the violent form of Marxism they espouse.

He states that the Senate "investigated" but never "decided" the Anita Hill controversy. Doesn't a confirmation vote of the majority of the Senate qualify as a "decision?

Perhaps the unusual tone of the biography is due to the author's sources. While he cites several issues of "Jet" magazine, he never includes the one source that would most accurately reveal the man and his beliefs; namely Judge Thomas' own eloquent record of his opinions as a Justice of the Supreme Court.

While the author did an adequate job of explaining how the Supreme Court works and provides other, basically factual information, his tone is suspicious and unenthusiastic. He obviously does not comprehend how an individual can be both conservative and a person of color.

One wonders why the author chose Clarence Thomas as a subject in a series of books called "People to Know." Ultimately, Judge Thomas is unknown to the author, who leaves his young readers with the highly inappropriate suggestion that the most powerful black man in America may have acheived his respected position by "selling his soul to the devil." I kid you not.