The new Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. snubs conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarance Thomas, according to a close friend of Justice Thomas.
Circa’s Raffi Williams reports the museum features Thomas’s sexual harassment accuser Anita Hill instead of Thomas’s work as the second African American Supreme Court Justice.
Museum officials acknowledged to Williams that there is “very little presence” of Thomas. Williams noted there was a mere negative mention of Thomas, referencing the controversy around his confirmation hearing when Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment.
“In 1991 Anita Hill charged Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas with sexual harassment,” a mention of Thomas in a museum exhibit reads.
Mark Paoletta, a close friend of Thomas, says the museum is doing a disservice to African Americans by ignoring Thomas’ contributions.
In an op-ed, Paoletta, who worked as assistant White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush, said the museum “implies that there’s no room for a black man who dares to challenge conventional wisdom of the Left. It also ensures that visitors will learn nothing about one of our nation’s most significant jurists.”
“Surely a museum that ‘seeks to understand American history through the lens of the African American experience’ should be more diverse than that,” Paoletta, who practices law in Washington D.C., added.
The museum didn’t return Breitbart News’s request for comment.
Paoletta told Breitbart News on Wednesday that Thomas’s “jurisprudence is a force to be reckoned with.”
“To not have Justice Thomas is outrageous,” he stated during a phone interview with Breitbart News about the museum. “A man who epitomizes an American success story of being born into poverty in the deep, segregated south and to overcome all those obstacles throughout his life and then to be appointed to the Supreme Court and to have a truly remarkable record…to essentially ignore the Justice in the museum is outrageous, but it’s not surprising.”
“They won’t even celebrate the achievements of this incredible man because he thinks differently,” Paoletta stated, referencing Thomas’s conservative record. “How offensive is that?”
“The African American museum wants to disappear him, as I call it, like he doesn’t exist and to me that’s just offensive that they would do that,” he alleged.
The 25th anniversary of Thomas’s confirmation to the Supreme Court is Oct. 15 and Paoletta wants people to know his friend is a “wonderful guy,” creating JusticeThomas.com to honor the history of his friend.
Paoletta recalled how Justice Thomas would spend a full day at a retirement home for nuns in order to visit his 8th grade Catholic school teacher.
“When she was retired…in a retirement home with probably 50 or 60 other retired nuns, Justice Thomas and I would … go up every year, just the two of us,” Paoletta recalled about his friend. “He’s a guy that never forgets who helps him.”
He also shared that Justice Thomas loves the Nebraska Cornhuskers. “He knows the name of every player and in fact the name of every recruit, knows their 40 yard dash time, and how many recruiting stars each player has. It’s amazing!” Paoletta praised, adding that Justice Thomas even served as an honorary coach at one game. “That’s why he is so well liked when people meet him. He is just a regular guy, who happens to be a Supreme Court Justice.”