Who is Anita Hill?
Efforts had been made to portray Anita Hill as a liberal thinking, civil rights activist concerned with feminist issues. At the time of the hearings, this characterization did not appear to be accurate. Not until after the 1991 hearings, and after receiving support from feminist groups, did Professor Hill become involved in feminist issues and activist causes. After graduating from Yale University in 1980, Anita Hill went to work for the law firm of Ward, Hardraker, and Ross. Although employment records have not been examined, associates at the firm indicated she had been requested to leave after 11 months. She then joined the ultra-conservative, affirmative action denying, Judge Clarence Thomas, Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights, at the Department of Education. She followed him to the EOEC. In the spring of 1983, an opportunity to teach at Oral Roberts University opened up. In Professor Hill’s words: “I participated in a seminar — taught an afternoon session and semin
This was not necessarily for lack of trying. GOP Judiciary Committee staff wanted to subpoena employment records from Wald, Harkrader, and medical records from Hill’s hospitalization in 1982, but the Democrats blocked it. At this writing, there are two exceptions to the lack of national media attention on Hill. Shortly after the hearings, Lally Weymouth, a Washington Post columnist, published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal that had been refused by the Post. Weymouth was able to shed a good deal of light on Hill’s politics. Bob Cohn, a Newsweek reporter, wrote a piece for the New Republic on what was billed as his unsuccessful foray down the “Thomas-Hill dirt trail.” What was interesting about Cohn’s piece was that while the so-called dirt on Thomas didn’t check out at all, the Hill dirt, which Cohn pooh-poohed with equal fervor, came from on-the-record interviews and sworn affidavits. Although the most popular theory to account for Hill’s anti-Thomas feelings is that she had
