My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir

Provocative, inspiring, and unflinchingly honest, My Grandfather's Son is the story of one of America's most remarkable and controversial leaders, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told in his own words.

Thomas was born in rural Georgia into a life marked by poverty and hunger. His parents divorced when Thomas was still a baby leaving his young mother to raise him and his siblings on the $10 a week she earned as a maid. At age seven, Thomas and his six-year-old brother were sent to live with his mother's father, Myers Anderson, and her stepmother in their Savannah home. It was a move that would forever change Thomas's life.

His grandfather was a black man with a strict work ethic trying to raise a family in the years of Jim Crow. Thomas witnessed his grandparents' perseverance despite injustices, their hopefulness despite bigotry, and their deep love for their country. His own quiet determination would propel him to Holy Cross and Yale Law School, and eventually—despite a bitter, highly contested public confirmation—to the highest court in the land. In this candid and deeply moving memoir, a quintessential American tale of hardship and grit, Clarence Thomas recounts his astonishing journey for the first time, and pays homage to the man who made it possible. My Grandfather's Son is the story of a determined man whose faith, courage, and perseverance inspired him to rise up against all odds and achieve his dreams.