Farrakhan

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas publicly praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his philosophy of black empowerment eight years ago, but the embattled judge said Friday that he “repudiates” the anti-Semitic views later attributed to Farrakhan.

“I cannot leave standing any suggestion that I am anti-Semitic,” Thomas said in a prepared statement. “I am and have always been unalterably and adamantly opposed to anti-Semitism and bigotry of any kind, including by Louis Farrakhan.”

Disclosures that Farrakhan was praised in two speeches prepared for delivery by Thomas to black organizations in 1983 prompted expressions of concern from leading Jewish organizations and raised new questions about the beliefs of the conservative black jurist. The Farrakhan material was actually delivered in only one speech.

Since President Bush nominated him two weeks ago to replace retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court’s only black and its leading liberal voice, Thomas has come under increasing criticism for his views on civil rights and other issues.

At the time of Thomas’ speeches in 1983, Farrakhan was a relatively unknown Chicago preacher who had yet to attain national notoriety for his militancy and anti-Semitic views.

Thomas, who currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia, opposes affirmative action and other race-based remedies for discrimination long favored by civil rights organizations and many members of Congress.

On Thursday, the Congressional Black Caucus registered its opposition to Thomas, saying it was concerned about his commitment to civil rights. Although the House members who belong to the caucus will play no direct role in the Senate confirmation process, their opposition could prompt other black organizations to coalesce against Thomas.

The list of groups expressing reservations about Thomas was joined Friday by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation’s largest public employee union. It urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject Thomas, saying that he “lacks the judicial experience necessary” to serve on the high court and has exhibited a “lack of commitment to equal justice and fundamental rights.”

Thomas has also had to deal with the problem of reports that he had used marijuana as a college student, although President Bush on Friday dismissed the significance of his drug experimentation.

“I think the matter has been put in proper perspective, and I think he handled it very well, and, certainly, in this instance, in these circumstances, in no way is disqualifying,” Bush told reporters in Kennebunkport, Me.

The references to Farrakhan were contained in the prepared texts of two speeches written for Thomas when he was chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the Ronald Reagan Administration.

Farrakhan, who has espoused black separatism as leader of the Nation of Islam, has drawn fire from Jewish rights groups for characterizing their faith as “a dirty religion” in early 1984, several months after Thomas delivered his speeches.

According to the texts of the prepared speeches, which were released by EEOC officials, Thomas concluded his remarks about black self-empowerment with a reference to Farrakhan as “a man I have admired for more than a decade.”

Both speeches went on to quote Farrakhan: “And so, I say to you, whether America overcomes or not, we the poor, we the oppressed, we the blacks, we the Hispanics, we the disinherited, we the rejected and most despised, we will overcome and then together we will be able to say in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King: Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we have united and made freedom a reality at last.”

The speeches were written by Thomas aide Armstrong Williams, who said they were intended to endorse only the self-help philosophy espoused by Farrakhan. In late 1983, he said, there was “no inkling” that Farrakhan later would become associated with anti-Semitism.

“Farrakhan was not controversial at that time,” Williams said. “If he had been the least bit controversial, I would not have included the quote in a speech, and Clarence would never have used it.”

In his statement, Thomas sought to distinguish between Farrakhan’s self-help philosophy and his other views. “I repudiate the anti-Semitism of Louis Farrakhan or anyone else,” he said. “While I support the concept of economic self-help, I have never supported or tolerated bigotry of any kind.”

Despite that assurance, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith said that Thomas “unfortunately did not go far enough” to distance himself from Farrakhan. “It is not possible to separate Farrakhan’s message from Farrakhan, the messenger,” said Abraham H. Foxman, the group’s national director.

However, spokesmen for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles said they were satisfied with Thomas’ explanation. “That put the issue to rest,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the center. “We are satisfied as far as the Farrakhan issue is concerned.”

Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), who is serving as Thomas’ sponsor during the confirmation process, said the nominee “was adamant” in his opposition to anti-Semitism. “As a victim of prejudice himself, he feels most strongly that it is morally wrong, and he has committed much of his professional life to combating it,” Danforth said in a statement.

One of the 1983 speeches, prepared for delivery to a group of black journalists in Washington, was not delivered as written, Williams said. Because he was speaking to an informal gathering of reporters, Thomas abandoned the prepared text and apparently did not mention Farrakhan in his off-the-cuff remarks, he said.

However, the second speech was a more formal presentation at a convention of the National Assn. of Black MBAs in Atlanta. In that case, Thomas stuck to the prepared text, including the reference to Farrakhan, Williams said.

Thomas received a standing ovation from the MBAs, something that happened only rarely in speeches to black groups, he said.

Williams, now a managing partner in a Washington public relations firm, said he included the Farrakhan quote in the Atlanta speech in an effort to link Thomas’ self-help philosophy with a similar opinion held by a figure familiar to inner-city blacks.

“We always discussed his speeches and interviews,” Williams said. After he drafted the speech and showed it to Thomas, Williams said, his boss told him: “This is one passage of Farrakhan’s I can relate to.”

Staff writer James Gerstenzang in Kennebunkport, Me., contributed to this story.

Khadijah Farrakhan, longtime wife of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, died Saturday, the Nation of Islam has announced. She was 90.

“Mother Khadijah” worked alongside her provocative and charismatic husband for decades, helping lead their religious and sociopolitical movement, which espouses Black self-reliance. Its home base was Mosque Maryam on the South Side of Chicago, where the couple lived.

“The Honorable Minister @LouisFarrakhan with deep sadness yet with profound gratitude to Allah informs you that his beloved wife of 72 years, the first lady of the Nation of Islam, Mother Khadijah has returned to Allah (may Allah be pleased),” a statement by the Shura Executive Council said.

Her death came seven months after devotees had marked Khadijah’s 90th birthday. The statement said funeral services are to be announced.

Mosque Maryam remembered her as “a devoted follower” with “a precious soul, a sweet heart.”

In a post on Facebook, R&B artist ZaRio Son Rise recalled her as “a true queen, a righteous woman, and one of the greatest examples of dignity, faith, loyalty, and grace our generation has ever witnessed.”

Born Betsy Ross, Khadijah Farrakhan married her husband, then named Louis Walcott, in Boston on Sept. 12, 1953. The two had nine children. Their eldest son, Louis Farrakhan Jr., died in 2018, and another son, Joshua Farrakhan, died in 2023.

Khadijah Farrakhan converted to Islam in 1955, the same year that her husband joined the Chicago-based movement after being heavily influenced by Malcolm X, his friend from Boston. The pair changed their names around that time.

Louis Farrakhan, who is now 93, stepped into the organization’s leadership vacuum shortly after Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Among his most significant accomplishments was the Million Man March on Washington in 1995.

Two years later, Khadijah Farrakhan spoke before a gathering of America’s Black women in Philadelphia dubbed the Million Woman March.

“A nation can rise no higher than its women,” she told the crowd. “We focus on women, but cannot lose sight that we must rise as a family — men, women and children.”

Smyth writes for the Associated Press.