The Georgia Senate on Tuesday approved a proposal to place a statue of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta, prompting outcry from Democrats and apparent criticism from some media outlets.
The Republican-led state Senate voted 32-20 along party lines to mandate a statue of Thomas, a native of Pin Point, Georgia, which is located near the city of Savannah. Senate Bill 69 will now head to the state House for further debate.
Republican Sen. Ben Watson, who represents Thomas’ birthplace, sponsored the bill.
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“Clarence Thomas… has lived a life marked by tremendous achievement,” Watson told fellow senators. “This native son of Georgia deserves a place of honor and recognition on our Capitol grounds, a place where future generations of Georgians can learn valuable lessons from his legacy and gain inspiration and belief that their lofty dreams are obtainable too in America, regardless of the circumstances into which they are born.”
The statue would be funded by private donations, according to Watson.
In contrast to GOP support, Democrats loudly criticized the bill, arguing Thomas is too controversial to receive such an honor. One state lawmaker even suggested Thomas, the second black American ever to serve on the nation’s highest court and currently its longest-serving justice, is a traitor to his race.
“I’m just trying to tell you what we have in the African American community when we talk about a person of color that goes back historically to the days of slavery and that person betraying his own community – we have a term in the Black community,” Sen. Emanuel Jones, who’s Black, said on the Georgia Senate floor while discussing the bill. “That term that we use is called ‘Uncle Tom.’ An Uncle Tom… talks about a person who back during the days of slavery sold his soul to the slave masters.”
Thomas faced racial…
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