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Oct 20, 2010 · U.S. Anita Hill vs. Clarence Thomas: The Backstory. October 20, 2010 / 1:38 PM EDT / CBS. With a brief voicemail message, the wife of Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas has...
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- HISTORY Vault
The uncomfortable spectacle of the hearings reverberated across the nation and had lasting consequences.
In October 1991, Americans were riveted by the spectacle of an all-white, all-male Senate Judiciary Committee questioning Anita Hill, the African-American law professor who had accused Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
TV viewers, both male and female, watched in increasing discomfort as the senators asked Hill about large-breasted women, a porn star named Long Dong Silver and pubic hair on a Coke can, among other previously unthinkable subjects for a Senate committee hearing.
But for women, Hill’s testimony would have special significance, as it was the first time someone had so publicly shared her account of workplace harassment—something that so many of them had experienced.
Though the committee would eventually confirm Thomas, making him only the second Black man to serve on the Supreme Court, the impact of Hill’s televised testimony would reverberate dramatically across the nation, with lasting consequences that endure today.
“I think women saw play out, in the most human terms, Anita Hill—credible and very much reflecting the experiences of so many other women—being demeaned, being dismissed and being mistreated by an array of male senators,” says Marcia Greenberger, founder and co-president emerita of the National Women’s Law Center. “And when they reflected upon it at the end of the hearings, their anger began to rise, and their determination to do something about it began to increase.”
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- Sarah Pruitt
She became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, of sexual harassment . Early life and education.
- Anita Faye Hill, July 30, 1956 (age 67), Lone Tree, Oklahoma, U.S.
Sep 27, 2021 · Anita Hill reflects on Clarence Thomas testimony, her 30-year fight against gender violence. Hill says the apology she received from President Joe Biden "wasn't enough." By Danielle Genet, Dominick Proto, Sean Sanders, Jade Anderson, and Laura Zaccaro. September 27, 2021, 7:15 AM. 6:46.
- Danielle Genet
- 7 min
Sep 19, 2018 · CNN — As Christine Blasey Ford’s lawyers insist the FBI investigate her allegation of sexual and physical assault against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, here is a look back at how the FBI –...
- 3 min
Sep 20, 2018 · In 1991, senators questioned Anita Hill about her accusation that Clarence Thomas, a nominee to the Supreme Court, had sexually harassed her. The questions and remarks that lawmakers made...
Sep 28, 2021 · In 1991, attorney Anita Hill testified that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her when he was chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and she worked...
