1991 July President George Bush nominates black Court of Appeals Judge Clarence Thomas to replace the retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall. Thomas, a conservative and former chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, was appointed by Bush in 1990 to the federal appeals court. Stating that while chairman of the EEOC, Thomas failed to display sensitivity regarding affirmative action, major national organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Congressional Black Caucus, voice opposition to the Thomas nomination.