Plan for Clarence Thomas statue splits Georgia Senate along party lines

Republicans in the Georgia Senate voted Monday to erect a statue at the state Capitol honoring U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Georgia native Clarence Thomas over objections from Democrats that his voting record has harmed Black Americans.

The bill passed 32-21 along party lines and now heads to the state House of Representatives. Thomas rose from poverty in the tiny coastal Georgia community of Pin Point to the nation's highest court. Nominated by then-President George H.W. Bush in 1991, Thomas is currently the longest serving Supreme Court justice.

'The story of Justice Thomas is a Georgia story, a story of somebody who grew up without a father from a young age, was homeless from a young age [and] was the first in his family to go to college,' Sen. Brian Strickland, RMcDonough, told his Senate colleagues Monday. 'That story should be told.'

But Senate Democrats cited a litany of court decisions in which Thomas, who is Black, has sided against the interests of Blacks, including rulings opposing affirmative action and repealing a key provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

'Justice Thomas is controversial,' said Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson. 'He's not well received in the Black community.' Other Democrats spoke out against putting up a statue on the Capitol grounds in honor of someone who is still in active service. Of the statues of Georgians on display at the Capitol, only those of former President Jimmy Carter and former Gov. and U.S. Sen. Herman Talmadge were erected while they were alive, and both had retired well before the statues were erected. 'Justice Thomas' political story is still not finished,' said Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah. Sen. Ben Watson, RSavannah, accused Democrats of 'bad faith' and 'gamesmanship' in opposing a Thomas statue.

'Justice Thomas has not forsaken his home, his state, his family or the city and town where he grew up,' Watson said. 'But he's not in your face about it. He's not disrespectful about it.' The bill provides that the Thomas statue would be financed privately, with no use of tax dollars.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.