Why Clarence Thomas Left the Black Power Movement Behind | FRONTLINE

Holy Cross Catholic all male more than 2 000 white students 27 black students many of them as frustrated as Clarence was now I was pissed off I had evolved from being hopeful to being pissed off a lot of young people in America was pissed off and they weren't seeking a Reconciliation okay they're seeking a coup change the whole thing we all involved it I was involved in the protest he was literally everybody who went up there and and we those of us from the south we were right there with them saying yeah man we we want to push he definitely was inspired by the Black Panthers he dressed like them he talked like them he had a beret he had Army fatigues and he had the army boots I wore afro he was out there with everyone else I think it was positive because he had a he had a group he wasn't alone now he became part of his group I don't know if he had a well-formed political philosophy before he got the Holy Cross maybe he was simply going along but the years 1968 1969 gosh I was there and the forces of Conformity to a sense of outraged Fury resistance the throwing off of Oppression by any means necessary it was very seductive it was very compelling to many many people among whom was Clarence Thomas and he had a hero Malcolm X we want Freedom by any means necessary we want Justice by any means necessary we want equality by any means necessary he had a poster of Malcolm X in his dorm room Justice Thomas boasted at one point he had read all of his speeches and he said at one time he could quote you some of them by heart I mean so he really did pay attention to Malcolm X we are oppressed we are exploited we are downtrodden we are denied not only civil rights but even human rights Clarence Thomas's activism culminated in his junior year as protests broke out 40 miles away in Harvard Square it's an estimated 2 000 radical students from the Greater Boston area decided to march to Cambridge and continue demonstrating we drank our way to Harvard Square where our disorderly parade deteriorated into a full-scale ride the demonstration then turned into the most extreme civil disorder in Cambridge history four thousand students against two thousand police fired rounds of tear gas into the crowd but that didn't deter us and we kept on riding well into the night I got back to campus at four in the morning horrified by what I just done all over the United States yesterday there were anti-war protests most of them peaceful one was not at Harvard University last night nearly 200 people were injured 40 students were arrested I had let myself be swept up by an angry mob for no good reason other than that I too was aimed and certainly somebody talks about a lot here I am in Harvard Square and like this mini Riot like what am I doing here right what am I doing he was conflicted about what he'd done who he was what he stood for I don't think anything about Clarence Thomas is simple I mean he's a bundle of contradictions and it seems like there's just always so much inner tension within him yes he was Radical like his peers but not as radical and he broke with them in various ways and he's always breaking with whatever the dominant political Trope is he says you know he's always talking about how he's not going to do what's fashionable he wants to be different

Channel: FRONTLINE PBS | Official

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Id: lKH_yMrPDYI

Length: 4min 50sec (290 seconds)

Published: Tue May 09 2023