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mailman is late with her welfare check. That’s how dependent she is.” Political commentators had cited this remark as a key to Thomas’ rise in popularity with the conservatives of the Reagan administration. Ellen Wells, who has since changed party affiliations, attended the conference. She recalls that Thomas painted his sister as an odious, unworthy individual who had chosen slovenliness over industry and fraud over honest work. Moreover, according to Thomas, his sister had schooled her children to do the same. When I spoke to LaFraniere, I did not know that Emma Mae Martin had gone on welfare in order to care for an ailing aunt and was now self-supporting, working two jobs. Thomas’ characterization of her had just stuck with me for years. I had even mentioned to Thomas himself how unduly harsh I thought it. He shrugged off my reaction. Had I known the truth about his sister, I would have been even more critical of Thomas’ indifference to her situation in the early 1980s. But most detestable was Thomas’ willingness to malign his sister as a ward of the state to further his own political ambitions. That demonstrated a level of duplicity of which even I would not have believed him capable.

Once again I chose not to go into the details of that experience with LaFraniere. Like Margolick, The Washington Post reporter seemed to me to be missing the point that the significance of the nomination was what it would add to the jurisprudence of the Court. While neither expressed any hostility toward Thomas, both seemed to be pursuing a line of questioning that relied primarily on personal opinion with little attention to Thomas’ record. I was certain that opinion would be mixed. It is hard to imagine anyone getting to the point of being nominated to the Supreme Court without a number of vocal supporters. But from my observation of him and his own early assertions about his lack of popularity, I knew that there were many who would be critical too.

The debate over the merits of the Thomas nomination continued throughout the summer. The American Bar Association gave Thomas its lowest rating ever, reflecting a lukewarm if not chilly reception to the nomination in the legal profession. The Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, a coalition of 185 national organizations, opposed the nomination forcefully, stating two grounds: that Thomas “let his personal opinions interfere with his constitutional and statutory responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws” and “demonstrated a consistent hostility to many of the Supreme Court’s most fundamental civil rights decisions.”

Though President Bush had declared that race was not a factor in his selection of Thomas, the White House chose to focus on Thomas’ personal background in pointing to his qualifications for the post. All but ignoring his judicial record, the White House spun a tale about his childhood poverty and his triumph over discrimination. One Thomas proponent remarked that his hard work and self-discipline sent a message that it is possible for blacks to succeed in American society. Much of the media coverage followed suit, tracing Thomas’ history to the small town of Pin Point, Georgia, where he had spent a portion of his youth, through his education at Holy Cross and Yale and his nomination to the Court. Some of the coverage mentioned his comments about his sister, but few saw the irony in the contrast between the choices he had in life and those of his sister.

After a fire destroyed his mother’s home, Thomas and his brother, Myers, were sent to live with their grandparents in Savannah. Martin, their sister, remained in Pin Point and lived with an aunt. Both Thomas and his brother graduated from private school. Martin graduated from public school. “I had the opportunity to go to college if I wanted to, but I made the choice,” she told an interviewer. “I took care of the older people.” While Thomas was in law school, Martin survived by working two minimum-wage jobs. Later, when her aunt suffered a stroke, Martin quit work to care for her. Her husband had abandoned the family