Anita Hill

“I have no personal vendetta against Clarence Thomas. I seek only to provide the committee with information which it may regard as relevant.”

“It would have been more comfortable to remain silent.”

“Telling the world is the most difficult experience of my life, but it is very close to having to live through the experience that occasion this meeting.”

“I thought that by saying no and explaining my reasons my employer would abandon his social suggestions. However, to my regret, in the following few weeks, he continued to ask me out on several occasions.”

“Because I was extremely uncomfortable talking about sex with him at all and particularly in such a graphic way, I told him that I did not want to talk about these subjects.”

“Well, of course it was a very trying time for me, and fortunately I had a lot of people who were supportive. A lot of people who were writing and calling and saying they were praying for me. Some people sent me Scripture, and that helped.”

“If you think about the way the hearings were structured, the hearings were really about Thomas' race and my gender.”

“I was aware, however, that telling at any point in my career could adversely affect my future career.”

“What I wanted was for everyone listening to understand that these things mattered - not necessarily for me, but in this particular forum they mattered in terms of whether of not we were getting a person who should sit on the Supreme Court.”

“I see myself as an educator.”

“But I think it would be irresponsible for me not to say what I really believe in my heart to be true - that there are some serious inequities that we face as women and that we can work to address these inequities.”

“I became the messenger who had to be killed.”

“The FBI has had a history of sex discrimination complaints brought against it, as well as race discrimination.”

“I did what my conscience told me to do, and you can't fail if you do that.”

“I think, though, as African-American women, we are always trained to value our community even at the expense of ourselves, and so we attempt to protect the African-American community.”

“But the issue of sexual harassment is not the end of it. There are other issues - political issues, gender issues - that people need to be educated about.”

“For my undergraduate work, I went to Oklahoma State University and graduated from there in 1977.”

“What we really need to be understanding is that all of these things matter and they all stem from the fact that certain people live with power and authority and they want to maintain it.”

“My parents are older, and they lead a somewhat sheltered life. It was difficult to talk with them about things that were embarrassing to me, and that I had never spoken to them about.”

“Certainly my life will not ever be as private and discreet, and perhaps I should even use the word insulated, as it was before.”