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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to Speak at W&L on March 16

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will speak as part of Washington and Lee University’s Contact series of speakers on Monday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The program is free and open to the public.

• Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-served. Overflow seating will be in Northen Auditorium.
 
Thomas, an associate justice, was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush and took his seat on October 23, 1991. He became the second African American to serve on the court following Thurgood Marshall, whom he replaced.
 
Born in the Pin Point community of Georgia, near Savannah, in 1948, Thomas attended Conception Seminary and received an A.B., cum laude, from Holy Cross College, and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974.  He was admitted to law practice in Missouri in 1974, and served as an assistant attorney general of Missouri from 1974–1977, an attorney with the Monsanto Company from 1977–1979 and a legislative assistant to former Missouri Senator John Danforth from 1979–1981.
 
From 1981–1982, he served as assistant secretary for civil rights of the U.S. Department of Education and as chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982–1990.  He became a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990.
 
Thomas is the author of the 2008 volume, My Grandfather’s Son: A Memoir.
 
Contact is a non-partisan, all-student committee under the jurisdiction of the executive committee of W&L’s student body. Its mission is to bring prominent speakers to the Washington and Lee campus in events that are both educational and entertaining.