Book Chronicles Career of Justice Clarence Thomas

Read the Full Transcript

• GWEN IFILL:

  October 1991, Clarence Thomas was on the verge of confirmation as only the second African-American to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. But it all nearly came crashing down, when on the eve of the full Senate vote, law professor Anita Hill, a former Thomas protege, stepped forward to testify he had sexually harassed her 10 years earlier.

• ANITA HILL, Law Professor:

  When I was asked by a representative of this committee to report my experience, I felt that I had to tell the truth. I could not keep silent.

• JIM LEHRER:

  The nomination took a startling turn after that, moving beyond issues of constitutional interpretation to a he said-she said confrontation that lasted for three days, including rare Saturday and Sunday sessions. Everyone seemed to take sides. Thomas denied the charges, and he was furious.

• JUSTICE CLARENCE THOMAS, U.S. Supreme Court:

  Unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate, rather than hung from a tree.

• GWEN IFILL:

  Thomas was ultimately confirmed in a 52-48 Senate vote. Sixteen years later, Washington Post reporters Kevin Merida and Michael Fletcher tell the story of the conflicted man who survived that cauldron, in "Supreme Discomfort: The Divided Soul of Clarence Thomas." I spoke with them recently.

  Kevin, you chose to tell the story of Clarence Thomas through the prism of race. Why did you do that?

• KEVIN MERIDA, Washington Post Reporter:

  Well, I think, Gwen, that race really is an inescapable factor in most black lives, no matter how disappointing or successful those lives have been. And I think that Clarence Thomas, unknown to many, really embraces his racial identity.

  It's a complicated identity. Sometimes he's fine about it, he's tortured about it, he's confused about it, and we thought that that was an area of exploration that others had not gone down to explore.