Human Rights A Day

Anita Hill offers to testify against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. On October 7, 1991, a U.S. Senate judiciary committee was scheduled to meet in Washington, DC to decide on whether to appoint Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. When a law professor by the name of Anita Hill offered to show up to speak that day, she was given the go-ahead. Once in front of the Senate committee, she dropped a bombshell: She accused Thomas of sexual harassment years before, when both had worked at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Although her comments and Thomas’s reactions were widely reported in the media, thus raising the profile of sexual harassment issues, in the end, Thomas was appointed to the Supreme Court. His decisions there have been among the most conservative of the court. Meanwhile, Hill returned to teaching law at Brandeis University, while also continuing to speak out about sexual harassment across the United States. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.