On November 17, 1991, a full-page ad appeared in the New York Times. It was in the form of an essay signed by more than 1,600 Black women, and it protested in strong terms the recent appointment of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thomas was a controversial figure, in part because he was a Black man who held decided conservative views. He opposed affirmative action, believing that it perpetuated the “separate but equal” principle that had been overturned in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka almost four decades earlier.