Anita Hill is an American lawyer and academic who became a national figure in 1991 when she accused U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, while he was in the running for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Thomas was her supervisor at the United States Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, whom she accused in front of the world catching national attention.
Hill is also a university professor of social policy, law, and women’s studies at Brandeis University and a faculty member of the university’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
Hill has also published her autobiography titled “Speaking Truth to Power” in which she chronicled her role in the Clarence Thomas confirmation controversy influencing people to live a better society. Hill even has received the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession’s “Women of Achievement” award in 1992.
She was also inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993. On September 5, 2020, it was confirmed that Hill vows to vote for Joe Biden against Donald Trump in the 2020 election and work with him on gender issues despite their troubled history dating nearly 3 decades.
Source: @npr
What is Anita Hill Famous for?
- Famous as an Attorney and professor at Brandeis University’s Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
- Known for accusing U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
Where was Anita Hill Born?
Anita Hill was born on July 30, 1956, in Lone Tree, Oklahoma, United States. Her birth name is Anita Faye Hill. Her nationality is American. Hill belongs to African-American ethnicity while Leo is her zodiac sign.
Hill was born to a family of farmers in Lone Tree, Oklahoma, as the youngest of 13 children of her parents Albert Hill(father) and Erma Hill(mother). Her family came from Arkansas, where her maternal grandfather, Henry Eliot, and all of her great-grandparents had been born into slavery back then and Anita was raised in the Baptist faith along with her 12 older siblings.
Hill attended and graduated from Morris High School, Oklahoma, after which she got enrolled at Oklahoma State University and eventually graduated earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology with honors in 1977. After her graduation, she went on to Yale Law School, where she got her Juris Doctor degree with honors in 1980. The same year, she got admitted to the District of Columbia Bar at age of 24 where she began her law career as an associate with the Washington, D.C. firm of Wald, Harkrader & Ross.
Source: @cbsnews
Anita Hill’s Career Highlights: Controversy With Clarence Thomas
- Anita Hill started her professional career initially as an associate with the Washington, D.C. firm of Wald, Harkrader & Ross. In 1981, she became an attorney-adviser to Clarence Thomas, who was then the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
- Thomas subsequently became chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1982, Hill went along to serve as his assistant, serving for 2 years until 1983 when she left the job.
- Hill then became an assistant professor at the Evangelical Christian O. W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University where she taught for 3 years from 1983 to 1986. In 1986, she joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law where she taught commercial law and contracts.
- Hill caught the national attention in 1991 when she accused Clarence Thomas, with whom she worked for three years of sexual harassment while he was running for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
- On October 11, 1991, in televised hearings, she told that Thomas had sexually harassed her while he was her supervisor at the Department of Education and the EEOC. On the veracity of HIll’s 1991 testimony, American Spectator writer David Brock also wrote, “The Real Anita Hill”(1993) so did Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson who wrote “Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas”.
- In 2007, Thomas published his autobiography, “My Grandfather’s Son”, in which he revisited the controversy, calling Hill his “most traitorous adversary”.
- On response to the 1991 controversy, Hill was mentioned in the 1992 Sonic Youth song “Youth Against Fascism”, in The X-Files episode aired in 1996, “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man”, a film titled “Strange Justice” and was even subject of the 2013 documentary film, “Anita” by director Freida Lee Mock. Hill was portrayed by actress Kerry Washington in the 2016 HBO film, “Confirmation”.
- Hill continued to teach at the University of Oklahoma, though she spent two years as a visiting professor in California, where she resigned her post in October 1996 and finished her final semester of teaching there where she taught a law school seminar on civil rights.
- In January 1997, she accepted a position as a visiting scholar at the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California, Berkeley but soon joined the faculty of Brandeis University and later moved to the Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
- Hill has provided commentary on gender and race issues on national television programs, including 60 Minutes, Face the Nation, and Meet the Press over years and has been a speaker on the topic of commercial law as well as race and women’s rights. She is also the author of articles that have been published in The New York Times and Newsweek that have covered the topics of international commercial law, bankruptcy, and civil rights.
- In 1995, Hill co-edited “Race, Gender and Power in America: The Legacy of the Hill-Thomas Hearings” with Emma Coleman Jordan, and two years later in 1997, she published her autobiography, “Speaking Truth to Power” where she mentioned about having created a better society that has been motivating force in her life for past years.
- In 2011, Hill published her second book titled “Reimagining Equality: Stories of Gender, Race, and Finding Home”. On December 16, 2017, Hill was selected to lead a charge against sexual harassment in the entertainment industry by the Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace. Hill even wrote an op-ed in The New York Times regarding sexual assault allegations made by Christine Blasey Ford during the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination in September 2018.
- On September 5, 2020, Hill again made headlines after she confirmed that Hill wanted to vote for Joe Biden against Donald Trump in the 2020 election and even wanted to work with him on gender issues despite their troubled history dating nearly 3 decades.
Awards and Honors
- Received the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession’s “Women of Achievement” award in 1992.
- Inducted into the Oklahoma Women’s Hall of Fame in 1993.
- Awarded the Louis P. and Evelyn Smith First Amendment Award in 2008.
- Inducted as an honorary member of Zeta Phi Beta sorority at their National Executive Board Meeting in Dallas, Texas in 2017.
- Awarded an honorary LLM degree by Wesleyan University in 2018.
Who is Anita Hill Married to?
Anita Hill hasn’t got married yet. Hill has spent most of her time spreading awareness on issues of sexual harassment, gender violence, gender discrimination, women’s rights, civil rights, and many more that have left an impact on every field. Though she hasn’t got married yet, she had been linked with many people back then including popular politician Joe Biden with whom she had a troubled history dating back nearly three decades.
During the 1991 hearings of Thomas, Biden was serving as the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who oversaw the confirmation hearing of then-US Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Almost after 30 years of the incident, Hill now has expressed her want to vote for Joe Biden against Donald Trump in the 2020 election and also expressed her want to work with him on gender issues.
What is the Net Worth of Anita Hill?
Anita Hill has quite good earnings from her professional career as an academic and lawyer who has been in the field for over 40 years now. Having started her career since 1980, as an assistant Hill has come a long way becoming one of the prominent faces and voices in the topics of international commercial law, bankruptcy, civil rights, and more especially the women’s rights.
With all of her works for years, also being a professor at several universities has definitely helped Hill to amass a healthy fortune which is estimated to be around $2.5 million.
How Tall is Anita Hill?
Anita Hill is a beautiful Black woman in her mid-60s who has empowered all the world with her bold and fearless personality. Hills stands tall with a height of 5ft. 6inch. while her body weighs around 65kg. She has a dark complexion with black hair and brown eyes.
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