One member of the Georgia General Assembly wants a statue of Clarence Thomas on the state capitol grounds, but one Democrat vigorously opposes the idea and the way she stated her opposition left some people shocked.
Georgia State Representative Donna McLeod (D-Lawrenceville) stated those remarks when she spoke to The Atlanta Journal Constitution late last week.
“I’d rather them keep a Confederate monument than a statue of [Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas,” McLeod reportedly told the paper.
“That’s how much I don’t like the idea.”
McLeod’s remarks attracted the notice of National Review (NR).
“We’ve known for decades that liberals hate Clarence Thomas. Despite his incredible life story, and his tremendous stature and influence on the Court, the Left has had it in for Thomas from the start of his time in public life. The logic of contemporary identity politics dictates that he is supposed to have a different set of views from the originalism he has so skillfully expounded on the Supreme Court,” wrote NR Submissions Editor Jack Butler.
“Because he does not, he is not merely an ideological opponent. Indeed, he is, to McLeod, not even morally indistinguishable from Confederates. He is worse. Thomas’s long tenure on the Court has provided many glimpses of his brilliance, but also of the depth of the Left’s distaste for him. We have seen many lows, but McLeod’s is a new one.”
McLeod assumed office in 2019, and her current term ends on January 8, 2023. She was born in Jamaica and became a U.S. citizen in 2012. according to Ballotpedia.
Georgia State Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas) has called upon his colleagues in the Georgia General Assembly to place a statue of Thomas, a U.S. Supreme Court associate justice, on the state capitol grounds.
“The grounds of the Georgia Capitol currently include statues and monuments to many notable Georgians. Justice Clarence Thomas, as a Georgia native and as a dedicated civil servant with nearly 30 years of service on the Supreme Court of the United States, it is only fitting and proper that a statue of him be displayed at the Capitol,”Anavitarte said last month.
“Justice Thomas is only the second African American United States Supreme Court Justice and only the fourth from the State of Georgia,”
Thomas was born June 23, 1948 in Pin Point, Georgia in Chatham County. Justice Thomas attended St. John Vianney Minor Seminary near Savannah, before furthering his education at the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Missouri and, later, Yale Law School. In 1991, Justice Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States where he continues to serve.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Donna McLeod” by Donna McLeod. Background Photo “Georgia Capitol” by DXR. CC BY-SA 4.0.
