At a time when the country’s top corporate law firms were still hiring very few blacks, opportunity arrived on the Yale campus in the form of John C. “Jack” Danforth, Missouri’s Republican attorney general. A Yale Law School graduate, a member of the school’s board, and a man committeed to advancing the cause of civil rights, Danforth came to New Haven expressly to recruit a black lawyer for his office. Professor Guido Calabresi, later the law school’s dean, recalled Danforth’s asking “for the names of very able black students. He was concerned with diversity very early on.” Calabresi recommended Thomas’s friend Frank Washington and one other recent graduate, Rufus Cormier. However, both already had solid job offers. But Washington, in turn, suggested that Danforth talk to Thomas.
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