The rise of Clarence Thomas from a poor boy in Georgia to the Supreme Court is tied to a series of momentous events during his freshman year at Conception Seminary in 1967-1968 in Missouri.
Thomas was born in a shack in Pin Point, Georgia, 11 miles southeast of Savannah. His mother was a Baptist, and he was born out of wedlock. In 1955 (when Thomas was 7), he moved in with his maternal grandfather, Myers Anderson, who was a converted Catholic.
Anderson introduced Thomas to St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church, which served the black community in Savannah (and, according to its historical marker, is the “Mother Church of Black Catholics in Georgia”). Information on the veneration of the saint who was born a slave.
Thomas graduated from Saint John Vianney Minor Seminary high school in 1967 on the Isle of Hope, Savannah, Georgia. The school, which operated from 1959 to 1968, was created to encourage the formation of homegrown priests in the Savannah Diocese and was mostly white. It was located at the 30-acre Villa Marie Camp, in an extremely scenic location on the Skidaway River, about 9 miles from the Atlantic.
Thomas yearbook in 1967 had this description of him:
T.C – Savannah, GA – St. Benedict’s Parish – Business man from The Grail and Seyf’s partner on The Pioneer…Bob Hayes idol…Tops…Mmwuaahaahaa…blew that test, only a 98…Hey boey!…base fiddler in the schola…likes to argue
US News said the yearbook also had this:
“Keep on trying, Clarence. Someday you’ll be as good as us.”
After Vianny was sainted, his “incorrupt heart” was displayed at American churches in 2019, including several in the metro Kansas City area, as well as at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison, Kansas.
It is not entirely clear why someone from Georgia would choose Conception, Missouri, for their priestly training. The St. Joseph News-Press noted that they were identified only when they arrived as the “Georgia Boys” from Savannah.
Benedict Neenen, who has been the abbot of Conception since 2016 and was a fellow freshman classmate, as well as another classmate, Tom O’Brien, discussed Thomas’s stay at Conception in 2022.
“For somebody who doesn’t speak much on the Supreme Court, he’s hilarious,” O’Brien said. “He was just one of the most entertaining classmates we had. He would get us all cracking up and he was genuinely a good guy.”
While his mental prowess should come as no surprise — both former classmates said he was one of the brightest students — Thomas was also incredibly athletic, and given the small town, O’Brien said all there was to do was sports, books and church.
“He could throw a football 65 yards in the air,” O’Brien said. “We had a softball game once where somebody went out to deep center field and I was a cutoff, that ball is still in the air. I mean I have never seen an arm like that.”
Per Wikipedia (and mentioned in the 2022 article), Thomas chose to abandon his priesthood ambitions in 1968 after hearing racist reactions at Conception to the Martin Luther King assassination.
After Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, he overheard a fellow student say, “Good. I hope the son of a bitch dies” and “[t]hat’s what they should do to all the niggers“. The display of racism moved Thomas to leave the seminary. He thought the church did not do enough to combat racism and resolved to abandon the priesthood. He left at the end of the semester.
US News during his confirmation said this:
Thomas’s discomfort with the church grew stronger at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Missouri, where he lasted only a year. White classmates would cross the street to avoid greeting him…Thomas said of those days, “I was considered the black spot on the white horse.” He recalled the day in 1968 that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot: “I was following this white seminarian up a flight of stairs, and I overheard him say, after he heard that Or. King had been shot. ‘That’s good. I hope the SOB dies.’ I think that was the last straw. I couldn’t stay in this so-called Christian environment any longer.”
Thomas left the Midwest following the incident and enrolled in Thomas enrolled at the College of the Holy Cross, an elite Catholic college in Massachusetts, as a sophomore transfer student on a full academic scholarship. He graduated from Yale with his Juris Doctor in 1974.
Unable to get a job initially, his resume caught the eye of Missouri Attorney General John Danforth in 1974. Danforth was an Episcopal Priest (earning his religious degree from Yale as well as his law degree). Thomas became an Assistant Missouri Attorney General. When Danforth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976 in a surprise victory after Jerry Litton, the winner of the Democratic primary, died in a plane crash on the night of his primary victory, Thomas was Danforth’s legislative assistant.
Thomas caught the eye of President Ronald Reagan and was appointed to various positions, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In 1991, George H.W. Bush nominated him for the Supreme Court, and Danforth would be Thomas’s strongest supporter as he was named to the court after a very contentious battle.
The 2022 article notes Thomas has been back for a couple reunions.