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This is
the third post on the five women I most admire. Anita Hill, professor
of law at Oklahoma University when Clarence Thomas was being considered
by the Senate for appointment to the Supreme Court, stepped up to give
under oath her story of sexual harassment by Thomas.
I was
absolutely dismayed by the Senate committee's--all male, of
course--skeptical attitude concerning Hill's testimony. I, as well as
my female co-workers, had been sexually harassed in the workplace long
before women had any recourse, so I had not one doubt that Hill, an
Oklahoma native, was telling the truth.
I knew
that Hill had nothing to gain and everything to lose. So, what possible
motive could she have to lie. Her courage galvanized my resolve never
to accept without reporting it any further sexual harassment I
encountered, even if it cost me my job.
Even
though Thomas was appointed--a travesty--it galvanized women and
launched the sexual revolution against harassment in the workplace.
Today, my daughters, and all working women, have the assurance of
corporate companies that they will not tolerate such behavior and can
report it if it does occur without fear of losing their jobs.
In 1981, Hill became an attorney-adviser to Clarence Thomas at the U.S. Department of Education (ED). When Thomas became Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC),
Hill went to the EEOC with Thomas and his then-secretary, Diane Holt,
to serve as his special assistant. Hill alleges that it was during
these two periods (i.e., during her employment at ED and EEOC) that
Thomas made sexually provocative statements.
In october of 1991 , Hill was called to testify during the Senate confirmation hearing
of then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. 
Hill's allegations
against Thomas were made public when information from an FBI interview
about the allegations was leaked to the media days before the final
Senate vote on his appointment. Thomas was nominated by then-President
George H.W. Bush to replace the retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American to be appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
Hill's testimony included a wide variety of language she allegedly was subjected to by Thomas that she found inappropriate:
"He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films
involving such matters as women having sex with animals and films
showing group sex or rape scenes....On several occasions, Thomas told
me graphically of his own sexual prowess....Thomas was drinking a Coke
in his office, he got up from the table at which we were working, went
over to his desk to get the Coke, looked at the can and asked, 'Who has
put pubic hair on my Coke?'." [4]
Four individuals (Ellen Wells, John W. Carr, Judge Susan Hoerchner, and Joel Paul) testified that Hill had been upset at the time she worked for Thomas about what she had said was sexual harassment by him. Angela Wright,
another of Thomas' subordinates, stated that she had also been sexually
harassed by him but did not testify so at the hearings and Rose Jourdain testified that Wright had been upset at that time about what she had
also said was sexual harassment by Thomas. Wright had been fired by
Thomas from the EEOC. [5]
Thomas made a blanket denial of the accusations, claiming this was a "high-tech lynching", and, after extensive debate, the U.S. Senate narrowly confirmed Thomas by a vote of 52-48. [6]
In 1991, public opinion polls showed that 47% of those polled believed Thomas, while 24% believed Hill. In 1992, a different poll had 44% believing Hill and only 34% believing Thomas.[citation needed]
Public interest in, and debate over, Hill's testimony is said by
some to have launched modern-day public awareness of the issue of sexual harassment in the United States. Some also link this to what is known as the Year of the Woman[citation needed] (1992), when a significant number of women were simultaneously elected to the federal legislative branch.
Doubts about her testimony were furthered by the widely publicized and later recanted claims of David Brock, in his book The Real Anita Hill.
Brock, later describing the book as "character assassination",
disavowed it and apologized to Hill; he also suggests that he used
information provided by an intermediary of Thomas to threaten another
witness, Kaye Savage, into backing down, which Savage confirms.[7] His recantation was published in the July 1997 issue of Esquire Magazine, in a piece titled "I was a Conservative Hit Man." [7] and, in his subsequent book, Blinded by the Right, he accuses himself of being "a witting cog in the Republican sleaze machine."
In 2007, Clarence Thomas published his memoirs, revisiting the Anita
Hill controversy. He describes her as touchy and apt to overreact and
her work at the EEOC as mediocre. [8] He wrote in his autobiography, My Grandfather's Son:
- On Sunday morning, courtesy of Newsday, I met for the first time an
Anita Hill who bore little resemblance to the woman who had worked for
me at EEOC and the Education Department. Somewhere along the line she
had been transformed into a conservative, devoutly religious
Reagan-administration employee. In fact she was a left-winger who'd
never expressed any religious sentiments whatsoever during the time I'd
known her, and the only reason why she'd held a job in the Reagan
administration was because I'd given it to her.
In an op-ed piece written by Anita Hill, appearing in the New York Times on October 2, 2007, Ms. Hill writes that she "will not stand by silently and allow [Justice Thomas], in his anger, to reinvent me."
[edit] Recent career
Hill has provided expert commentary on many national television
programs. Hill has been featured on “Today,” “60 Minutes” and “Face the
Nation.” Hill is also the author of many articles which have been
published in “The New York Times,” “Newsweek,” and "Critical Race
Feminism." In addition, she has contributed to many scholarly and legal
publications. Hill is also a sought-after public speaker in many
arenas, including law and women's rights. [9]
In 1995, Hill co-edited Race, Gender and Power in America with Emma Coleman Jordan. [10] She has also "written extensively on international commercial law, bankruptcy, and civil rights".[11]
On October 29, 1996, Hill resigned from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. [12] She obtained a position at the Institute for the Study of Social Change
on the University of California's Berkeley campus in January 1997.[13]
In 1997, Hill joined the faculty of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, after time at Brandeis University's Women's Studies Program.
In 2005, Hill was selected as a Fletcher Foundation Fellow.
In 2008, Professor Hill was awarded the Louis P. and Evelyn Smith First Amendment Award https://www.fordhallforum.org/first_amendment_award.htmlhttps://www.fordhallforum.org/index.html. by the Ford Hall Foundation
.....................................................................................................................................................................
[edit] References
- ^https://www.ctforum.org/popups/bio.asp?event_bio_image_id=2611].
- ^ TESTIMONY OF ANITA F. HILL, PROFESSOR OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, NORMAN, OK 37. US Government Printing Office (1991-10-11). Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ TESTIMONY OF ANITA F. HILL, PROFESSOR OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, NORMAN, OK 37. US Government Printing Office (1991-10-11). Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ "Opening Statement: Sexual Harassment Hearings Concerning Judge Clarence Thomas," Women's Speeches from Around the World [[1]]
- ^ HEARINGS
BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED
SECOND CONGRESS FIRST SESSION ON THE NOMINATION OF CLARENCE THOMAS TO
BE ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES, Washington, DC: U.S Government Printing Office, 1991, pp. 273-331, 442-551, ISBN 0-16-040838-5, <https://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/04oct20051455/www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/sh102-1084pt4/sh102-1084pt4.zip> - ^ Today in History - Oct. 15 - Forbes Magazine, October 14, 2006.
- ^ a b Critic of Anita Hill Now Admits Lying
- ^ "16 years later, Thomas fires back at Anita Hill," MSNBC.com, 28 September2007,https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21038082/.
- ^ Biography of Anita Hill.
- ^ Hill, A. F. (Editor) & Jordan, E. C. (Editor). Race, Gender and Power in America. ISBN 0195087747.
- ^ Anita Hill focuses on electoral, Supreme Court issues. Brandeis University. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.
- ^ Anita Hill Plans to Leave Teaching Post in Oklahoma. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
- ^ Anita Hill to be visiting scholar at UC Berkeley during spring 1997 to work on book, give seminars. The Regents of the University of California. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
