"Don't Shame Our Race".

'Don't shame our race'
By Colbert I. King

"Don't shame me. And don't shame our race."

— Myers Anderson's counsel to his grandson, Clarence Thomas (My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir , by Clarence Thomas, 2007.)

There is no way of knowing what Myers Anderson would think of his grandson's performance as a Supreme Court justice. Anderson, whom Thomas called "Daddy," died two days before his 76th birthday in 1983 while Thomas was still chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Would Myers Anderson, a black man who struggled mightily to do for himself and who, according to Thomas, routinely put up his property as bond to bail student protesters out of jail, take pride in his grandson's service on the high court?

Would "Daddy" be able to reconcile the steadfast support that he gave the local NAACP chapter in Savannah, Ga., with his grandson's votes on race and civil rights-voting issues, which his black critics have characterized as traitorous?

How would "Daddy" feel if he heard the vitriolic barbershop talk taking his grandson's name in vain — if he learned that people of color say the man he helped raise from childhood should be ashamed of himself for having dishonored the seat Thurgood Marshall had held?

Of course, the answers to those questions are unknowable. Just as there is no way to precisely measure the extent of African Americans' hostility toward Thomas.

This much is clear: Thomas is aware of the disapproval, as he noted in My Grandfather's Son in several places. He also thinks it is unjustified. And he rejects the argument that he has turned his back on his race.

A "black man from the Jim Crow South" is his self-description. He writes that he simply has independent ideas of how African Americans can best achieve the common goal of equality. The pursuit of race-based remedies, he contends, is not one of them.

Reams have been written about Clarence Thomas by writers who have not exchanged two words with him. I'm not in that category. As with many other newsmakers whom I have met, Thomas and I have talked about more than I have ever written about him. I plan to keep it that way. "Off the record" means just that to me.

But Thomas will soon get some well-deserved scrutiny when the Supreme Court hands down its decision in a crucial voting rights case, Northwest Austin Municipal Utility v. Holder.

At issue is whether Congress can continue to require states with egregious past and current discriminatory voting practices to first receive clearance for changes in voting procedures from the Justice Department or a federal judge.

Critics have zeroed in on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision to guard against efforts to suppress the access of African Americans and other minorities to the ballot box.

Questioning by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy during oral arguments this year has led Court watchers to believe that the justices are likely to split 5-4 in favor of striking down that provision, with Thomas adding the fifth vote.

There is no reason for Thomas to vote that way.

Recall his grandfather's admonition: "Don't shame our race."

It would be a crying shame if a black man has a hand in tearing the heart out of the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act is not an example of an unconstitutional power grab by Congress. The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, no less, grants Congress authority to enforce the constitutional right to vote. Section 2 of the 15th Amendment says, "The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

The Voting Rights Act, as noted in a friend-of-the-court brief filed by several groups in the case, reflects "a quintessentially legislative judgment about how to protect fundamental constitutional rights." It has stood the test of time. Congress has reauthorized Section 5 of the act on several occasions, most recently in 2006. The Supreme Court has rejected challenges to the act at least four times.

For the Roberts Court to push Congress aside, assume the role of legislature and decide how the 15th Amendment must be enforced would be an act of judicial usurpation that Thomas, an originalist, ought to abhor.

What's more, the lengthy record of voting-related discrimination compiled by Congress leading up to renewal of the act in 2006 should, by itself, persuade Thomas to uphold Section 5. That 15,000-page record, consisting of more than 20 hearings and testimony from dozens of witnesses, revealed that despite obvious gains since passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, continued, pernicious misconduct persists in the states covered by the act. Barack Obama's election to the presidency notwithstanding, official race discrimination in voting is not a thing of the past. That is the position of civil rights lawyers, the Justice Department and Congress.
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It is inconceivable to me that Thomas, "a black man from the Jim Crow South" and steeped as he is in the law, would ignore the Constitution's grant of authority to Congress, the ongoing need to protect minority voters and his grandfather's instruction: "Don't shame me. And don't shame our race."

We live in hope.

Colbert I. King is a Pulitzer Prize-winning retired Washington Post editorial writer and columnist.