Dear Colleagues,
Last Friday, President Trump issued a Presidential Proclamation recognizing February 2025 as National Black History Month, and “call[ed] upon public officials … and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.” In his Proclamation, President Trump correctly noted that “black Americans have been among our country’s most consequential leaders, shaping the cultural and political destiny of our Nation in profound ways,” and identified as “Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thomas Sowell, and Justice Clarence Thomas” as “American heroes.”
President Trump is right. Justice Thomas is an American hero. He is the most important judge of the last 100 years. He is a good and honorable man, and my friend. Because the President has called upon us to celebrate the achievements of men and women like Justice Thomas during Black History Month, I want to take this occasion to share a little about him.
I encourage anyone who wants to learn about Justice Thomas’s incredible journey to watch the stirring 2020 documentary Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words. Descended from West African slaves, Justice Thomas grew up in punishing poverty. He also grew up under a government that denied black citizens equality under the law. He could not walk through certain public parks, enter certain public libraries, or attend certain public schools because of the color of his skin. Justice Thomas thus would have more cause than most to level grievances and hold grudges against America.
But he did the opposite. He believed in the promises of America’s founding, and he climbed to the highest heights of American government and society. One of the things that makes Americans distinct from the rest of the world is our belief that our past is not necessarily our destiny. With hard work, determination, and talent, any American can overcome the hardships of the past and achieve greatness. Justice Thomas is the living embodiment of that American spirit.
He has overcome more than just a difficult upbringing. His views on the law—which he once articulated in lone dissents but which now command a majority of the Court—were pilloried by American elites for years. He was, and is, the target of slurs and calumnies from progressive opponents. Many of these attacks have been explicitly racist. But he is uncowed. The same indominable spirit with which he overcame Jim Crow empowered Justice Thomas to reject elite naysayers and chart his own path in the law—a path that the Supreme Court now follows.
Of course, he did not do this alone. Justice Thomas’s family helped push him to these heights. Justice Thomas’s grandfather, Myers Anderson, a hardworking small-business owner in Savannah, spurred Justice Thomas to excellence. His wife Ginni is an American patriot who has bravely and unapologetically supported her husband throughout his public career, even when his opponents resorted to shocking lies and smears. And Justice Thomas has long identified his deep Catholic faith as a source of strength and courage.
I clerked for Justice Thomas. I came to know him as not just a great man, but also a good and decent person. He loves his law clerks like members of his family. And he knows and cares about the types of people that the average DC titan would pass right by—custodians, assistants, tour guides, and police officers. He remembers their birthdays, their children, and their health struggles.
I can think of no better summary of Justice Thomas’s greatness, and no better defense of America’s promise, than the closing lines of his concurrence in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard, in which the Supreme Court adopted Justice Thomas’s long-held view that race-conscious admissions policies violate the Constitution’s promise of colorblind equality:
“While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination, I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States: that all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and must be treated equally before the law.”
I wish you all a happy Black History Month.
Andrew N. Ferguson
Chairman
United States Federal Trade Commission
