Rosa Parks' Brutally Honest Words On Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court Nomination

Update: A prior version of this article indicated Judith Butler authored "The Feminine Mystique," but it was written by Betty Friedan. We have removed the reference to the book completely, as the passage is about Judith Butler and not the book itself. 

You've probably heard the name "Clarence Thomas" in some headlines lately. Since the reversal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, millions of Americans have lost faith in the nine justices in Washington, D.C. (via Gallup). The Supreme Court has the final word on American law: its decisions set the course of the world we will live in for the next few decades (often longer). One Supreme Court justice who spoke out vocally in support of the reversal, as you may already be aware, is a man named Clarence Thomas (via Newsweek).

It's not the first time he's been the target of outrage and grief. Long before the recent ruling and Thomas' return to the unforgiving glare of the spotlight, he's been the target of outcry from his peers, from women, and from those who fought fiercely for Black civil rights. With the exception of perhaps only Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, there is perhaps no civil rights hero more revered and more universally adored than one — Rosa Parks — and she spoke out against Thomas back in 1991.

Rosa Parks is not the only American giant of ideology that has spoken out against Thomas. Judith Butler, a well-known philosopher and gender theorist, also spoke on Clarence Thomas after the recent Dobbs ruling in a piece published by Verso Books. "Activists in the reproductive rights movements have known about this threat for some time, and Thomas simply now carries the torch that has been passed to him by conservative evangelicals ... In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), previous Supreme Court made clear that it thought Roe v. Wade was decided on illegitimate grounds," Butler wrote in June 2022.

The NAACP was also opposed to Thomas' nomination to the Supreme Court in a 49-1 vote in 1991, primarily citing his stance on affirmative action (via The Black Scholar). "We have concluded that Judge Thomas's confirmation would be inimical to the best interests of African Americans," the NAACP said in a statement. Benjamin Hooks said the decision was made with "neither joy nor haste." He continued in "On The Matter of Clarence Thomas": "We have found Judge Thomas to hold inconsistent views on civil rights policies. We are not willing to risk his going on the Court as a member of the increasingly radically conservative right."