Anita Hill received a phone call the other day from Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, asking her to apologize to her husband for accusing him of sexual harassment 20 years ago. Hill testified at the confirmation hearings of Justice Thomas in 1991, and almost cost him the nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hill accused Justice Thomas of sexually harassing her while he was her boss at the Education Department and Equal Opportunity Commission during the Reagan Administration.
Hill has been portrayed by Justice Thomas, his wife and supporters as either a scorned woman looking for revenge or as a pawn of people who wanted to keep Thomas, a conservative African-American man, off the bench. Hill, however, stands by her testimony and says she would never apologize because she spoke the truth at the confirmation hearings.
After Justice Thomas published his 2007 memoir, Hill responded to his portrayal of her as a liar. In an op-ed piece for the New York Times, Hill wrote that since she had accused her former boss of sexual harassment, she had seen many men and women over the years become victims of character assassination after complaining of discrimination or harassment in the workplace, but whatever people said about her, she would never take back her testimony.
Source:
Sex, Lies and Politics: He Said, She Said (TIME)