Hill–Thomas Hearings

The Hill–Thomas hearings, which took place in the U.S. Senate in October 1991, were held in connection with President George H. W. Bush's nomination of Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. The primary witness to testify against his nomination was University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita F. Hill. The hearings and events preceding them quickly captured the attention of the American media and public.

On June 27, 1991, Thurgood Marshall, the only African American on the U.S. Supreme Court, announced his resignation. The U.S. Constitution provides that the president “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint…Judges of the Supreme Court.” Four days later, the president nominated Marshall's successor, Clarence Thomas, an African American judge who had been sitting on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals for the previous 15 months. The nomination was immediately controversial. The president asserted that Thomas was the best person for the job, but some viewed him as too conservative and lacking in experience. Thomas's supporters, however, focused on his character and personal story as a self-made man who pulled himself up through hard work, rising from abject poverty in Pin Point, Georgia, to nomination to the nation's highest court. On September 28, the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked 7–7 on Thomas's nomination, then voted to send the nomination without recommendation to the Senate floor for hearings. The committee vote signaled trouble for the nomination.

Senate hearings began on October 3 and continued the next day, with little attention from the general public. On the morning of October 6, just 2 days before the Senate was scheduled to vote on the nomination, a story broke on National Public Radio and in Newsday that University of Oklahoma Law Professor Anita Hill, herself an African American, claimed she had been sexually harassed by Clarence Thomas when she worked for him at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Education Department in the early 1980s. Although she did not allege physical contact, she stated that he had asked her out numerous times, made obscene remarks to her, and described to her details from pornographic movies he had seen. The allegations created a firestorm of media attention. By that night, reporters had rushed to Norman, Oklahoma, to interview Professor Hill and her friends, colleagues, and students.

Reporters filled the law school building as classes began on October 7. Later that day, Hill held a televised press conference in one of the classrooms. On October 8, the Senate Judiciary Committee received a letter calling for an investigation that was signed by 120 women teaching in law schools from New York to California. That same day seven women serving in the House of Representatives marched up the steps of the Senate, demanding that the vote on Thomas be delayed. Thousands of voters contacted their senators, urging further investigation. By now, Thomas's supporters agreed, believing it necessary that he be given an opportunity to defend himself against the charges. That evening the Senate voted unanimously to delay the vote one week and to hold additional hearings on Hill's allegations.

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