By M.Z. Thwaite
A writer grabs onto a story like a dog takes a bone, but sometimes the bone turns out to be a stick, without a trace of meat on it.
Since Spring, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s relationship with Dallas real estate developer Harlan Crow has been a hot tamale in the news. Called into question were a small real estate deal and unreported trips and accommodations, but the accusations look like nothing more than a frantic swipe to stir up trouble.
Justice Thomas’s job puts him at the mercy of public scrutiny and requires that he have a thick skin, but when his friends are dragged into the limelight and vicious slag is dumped on them, it’s time to call it what it is. Hogwash.
Harlan was a dorm student at my high school in Atlanta. He was quirky, clever, and always up for a bit of fun. I spent one weekend at Harlan’s compound in the Adirondacks, the one that’s been so iced with adjectives by media that I don’t recognize it. What I remember is volleyball, and Mr. Trammel Crow smashing a shot over the net like he was one of us kids. I didn’t know what a real estate magnate was at the time, nor that Harlan’s father was one, but it didn’t matter. We were having fun.
Memories aside, I find it disheartening, yet typical, that the media twists Harlan’s generosity into something negative. We all enjoy sharing what we have, as does Harlan. Sally and John Parrott, high school friends who live in Greenville, have been on many Harlan trips. In a recent phone conversation, John said to me, “Harlan is a master at bringing people together … creating an environment where people enjoy one another, people who may or may not have a fancy resume.”
The allegations that Justice Thomas enjoyed trips and vacations and didn’t report them is absurd. Reports of that nature were not required or deemed necessary when Justice Thomas traveled with Harlan, and now that they are, he will comply.
Barton Swaim, editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal, allows us into Harlan’s world in his April 2023, piece, Collateral Damage of a Smear Campaign. Swaim says, “The effort to smear Justice Thomas has turned into an effort to smear his friend Mr. Crow.”
Harlan is an easy target, a collector of things that interest him. What might seem questionable to others is the beauty of Harlan’s collection which invites thought, questions, conversation. His library houses approximately 15,000 volumes. His taste is eclectic. An October article in Dallas Arboretum titled, Inside Harlan Crow’s ‘Garden of Evil’ and his collection from Washington to Monet, describes the items Harlan has amassed which include sculptures of dictators as well as documents signed by the likes of Christopher Columbus.
In the same article, Harlan humbly claims that he’s no authority. “I know a lot about building codes,” he said. But then he gets down to what drives him. “I mean it’s obvious to everybody, I think, that civil discourse has broken down. … And so, anything I can do, any thoughtful citizen can do, to promote a return to high-quality, courteous civil discourse – that would be a big win for all of us.”
To mention Harlan without a word about real estate is impossible. The big to-do about the Justice’s mother’s property in Savannah is, if I may borrow from Shakespeare, much ado about nothing. The only meat there is that when the house is vacated, Harlan plans to turn it into a museum where the story of the nation’s second black Supreme Court Justice will be told.
If you question Harlan’s intent, google the old A. S. Varn and Son seafood factory on the Moon River in Savannah. Harlan financed the restoration of the rundown factory. I stumbled upon the little jewel years ago. Chuck Mobley wrote a fascinating piece in 2011 in the Savannah Morning News, titled, Heritage Museum to bridge Pin Point’s past and future. It’s refreshing to see that Harlan, a private citizen, preserved an off-the-beaten-path bit of Savannah’s history because it was his old friend’s stomping ground.
For those who believe that Justice Thomas should resign or be removed, I ask you, based on what, a rule that didn’t exist at the time in question? And before you suggest that the longest-tenured Supreme Court Justice should either step down or be removed, I suggest you chew on a bone with at least a little cartilage on it.
M.Z. Thwaite lives in Beaufort. She wears her maiden name hat when she writes, but she also answers to Martha Weeks. Her novels are sold locally and on Amazon. She can be reached at mzthwaite@gmail.com and found at https://bit.ly/MZT.
