Supreme Court Nominations
Anita Hill Talks About Sotomayor and Her Own Clarence Thomas Testimony
Posted Jun 5, 2009, 12:00 pm CST
By Martha Neil
Seventeen years after she became a household name by testifying about alleged sexual harassment by then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, Anita Hill says she believes Obama administration nominee Sonia Sotomayor is a great choice because of her intellect, breadth of experience and respect for the rule of law.
Hill, who is now a professor at Brandeis University, was a year behind Sotomayor at Yale Law School. While she knew of Sotomayor at law school and was very favorably impressed with her there, the two weren't socially involved then or subsequently, Hill says now in an exclusive interview with Essence magazine.
Hill also talks about herself in the interview, saying that she doesn't regret her testimony against Thomas (who denied her claims in his own testimony), but thinks her accusations would have been regarded differently if she had been white rather than African-American.
"People ask, 'Does it bother you that your name will always be associated with sexual harassment?' It will only bother me if my name isn't associated with bringing it to an end, or moving the end forward," she tells Essence.
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