Anita Hill

Anita Faye Hill (born birth date |1956|7|30) is a professor of social policy, law, and women's studies at Brandeis University at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and a former colleague of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She is best known for testifying under oath at Thomas' 1991 Senate confirmation hearings that Thomas had made provocative sexual statements to her while being her supervisor.

Early career

Anita F. Hill was born in Lone Tree, Oklahoma, Hill received her undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University in 1977 and her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1980.

A professor of social policy, law, and women's studies, Hill was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar in 1980. Hill began her law career as an associate with the Washington, D.C., firm of Wald, Harkrader & Ross. In 1981 she served as counsel to the assistant secretary of the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. From 1982 to 1983, she moved on to serve as assistant to the chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Clarence Thomas (see below). Hill became a professor at Oral Roberts University, where she actively taught from 1983 to 1986. In 1986, she joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law. [ http://www.ctforum.org/popups/bio.asp?event_bio_image_id=2611] .]

Clarence Thomas controversy

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.

Although Hill was a career employee ("Schedule A") and therefore had the option of remaining at the Department of Education, she testified that she followed Thomas because, " [t] he work, itself, was interesting, and at that time, it appeared that the sexual overtures . . . had ended." cite web|url=http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/sh102-1084pt4/36-40.pdf|title=TESTIMONY OF ANITA F. HILL, PROFESSOR OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA, NORMAN, OK|date=1991-10-11|pages=37|publisher=US Government Printing Office|accessdate=2007-10-03] Also, she testified that she wanted to work in the civil-rights field, and that she believed that "at that time the Department of Education, itself, was a dubious venture."

On October 11, 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?'." ["Opening Statement: Sexual Harassment Hearings Concerning Judge Clarence Thomas," Women's Speeches from Around the World [http://gos.sbc.edu/h/hill.html] ]

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. [Citation
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title = 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
year = 1991
pages =273–331, 442–551
place =Washington, DC
publisher =U.S Government Printing Office
url = http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/04oct20051455/www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/senate/judiciary/sh102-1084pt4/sh102-1084pt4.zip
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isbn = 0-16-040838-5 ]

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. [ [http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/10/14/ap3091375.html Today in History - Oct. 15] - Forbes Magazine, October 14, 2006.]

Effects

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.

In their Black feminist anthology, "All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies", Editors Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith describe Black feminists mobilizing "a remarkable national response to the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas (Supreme Court nomination) in 1991, naming their effort "African American Women in Defense of Ourselves". [Hull, Smith, Scott. "All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies", pxvi]

Books

Doubts about her testimony were furthered by the widely publicized and later recanted claims of journalist 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. His recantation was published in the July 1997 issue of Esquire Magazine, in a piece titled "I was a Conservative Hit Man." [http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0627-01.htm Critic of Anita Hill Now Admits Lying ] ] and, in his subsequent book, "Blinded by the Right", he accuses himself of being "a witting cog in the Republican sleaze machine."

In 1998, Anita Hill penned her autobiography, "Speaking Truth To Power".

"I see ... the faces of these young people, and I see their hearts and that they really do want change, and that they deserve it," said Hill. "They deserve a better society and so that is what motivates me and I think that I can be a part of creating that and having [been] given that chance, I don't want to blow it."Fact|date=August 2008

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. ["16 years later, Thomas fires back at Anita Hill," MSNBC.com, 28 September 2007,http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21038082/.] 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." ["The Smear This Time," The New York Times, 2 October 2007,http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/opinion/02hill.html.]

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. [cite web|url=http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/speakers/Anita-Hill/722|title=Biography of Anita Hill]

In 1995, Hill co-edited "Race, Gender and Power in America" with Emma Coleman Jordan. [Hill, A. F. (Editor) & Jordan, E. C. (Editor). "Race, Gender and Power in America". ISBN 0195087747.] She has also "written extensively on international commercial law, bankruptcy, and civil rights". [cite web|url=http://my.brandeis.edu/profiles/one-profile?profile_id=27|title=Anita Hill focuses on electoral, Supreme Court issues|publisher=Brandeis University|accessdate=2007-10-01]

On October 29, 1996, Hill resigned from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. [cite web|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9902EFD6103BF930A25752C1A960958260|title=Anita Hill Plans to Leave Teaching Post in Oklahoma|publisher=The New York Times|accessdate=2007-10-03] She obtained a position at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at University of California, Berkeley in January 1997. [cite web|url=http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/97legacy/hill.html|title=Anita Hill to be visiting scholar at UC Berkeley during spring 1997 to work on book, give seminars |publisher=The Regents of the University of California|accessdate=2007-10-03]

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 [ [http://www.fordhallforum.org/first_amendment_award.html Ford Hall Forum First Amendment Award] ] by the Ford Hall Forum.

References

External links

* [http://www.heller.brandeis.edu/faculty/guide.php?emplid=e69d2f368b67d963832f9d1d8a5b8a07c6e976d5 Faculty profile at Brandeis University]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/02/opinion/02hill.html?hp Anita Hill's 2007 op-ed for "The New York Times"] discussing Thomas' Memoir.