LANDOVER, Maryland () -- In a move tinged with racial politics, a predominantly black school district in a suburb of Washington withdrew a speaking invitation to Clarence Thomas, the only black justice on the Supreme Court.


Thomas' invitation to address a June 10 ceremony at the Thomas Pullen Creative and Performing Arts School was withdrawn after a school board member complained that Thomas' work on the court had hurt black people.


"[Thomas] is determined to make black youths' lives harder than was his or mine by removing mechanisms such as affirmative action that benefited him throughout his adult life,'' said Prince George's County school board member Kenneth Johnson, who also is black.