Clarence and his brother were sent to live with his mother's parents in Savannah, Georgia. His grandfather wanted him to become a priest. Thomas was sent to St. John Vianney Minor Seminary, an all-white boarding school near Savannah. In 1968 he transferred to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He gave up all ideas of becoming a priest after the death of Martin Luther King Jr.. Thomas then obtained a law degree at Yale University.