Black lawyers must be 'conscience of the nation,' association president says
CHICAGO - Juan Thomas was a senior in college, a bit adrift and unsure where life might take him next, when he woke up to the news one morning that Carol Moseley Braun had beaten serious odds to win the 1992 primary for Illinois' U.S. Senate seat. The Chicago-area native decided then that he would return to his home state to help her become the first black woman senator.
"It gave me a sense of purpose and direction," Thomas said.
Twenty-five years later, after several forays into politics, Thomas feels a new, weighty purpose as president of the National Bar Association, the nation's largest and oldest network of black lawyers and judges.
The Chicago attorney has
