Image Credit: Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States, Photographer: Steve Petteway
CLARENCE THOMAS was born in the Pinpoint Community near Savannah, Georgia, on June 23, 1948. He was graduated from the College of the Holy Cross in 1971 and from Yale Law School in 1974. Thomas was admitted to the Missouri bar in 1974 and became an Assistant Attorney General of the State of Missouri the same year. He was an attorney for the Monsanto Company from 1977 to 1979. Thomas served as legislative assistant to Senator John C. Danforth of Missouri for the following two years. In 1981, Thomas was appointed Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the United States Department of Education. In 1982, he was named Chairman of the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and served in that capacity until 1990. President George Bush appointed Thomas to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990. On July 1, 1991, President Bush nominated Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Senate confirmed the appointment on October 15, 1991.