Anita Hill's Challenge To Clarence Thomas: A Tale Of 2 Lives And 3 Elections
Brett Kavanaugh is not the first presidential nominee to have his run to the Supreme Court frozen at the finish line by a woman's accusations.
Throughout this week of turmoil in Washington, the historical backstory has been the 1991 confrontation between Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and a former colleague named Anita Hill.
The classic clash of his and her testimony forced the reopening of Thomas' confirmation hearings and mesmerized a national TV audience for days. Hill won many believers with her powerful narrative of sexual harassment when she and Thomas were both lawyers at the Department of Education (and later at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).
Thomas came back with a spirited defense, accusing "white liberals" on the Judiciary Committee of "a high tech lynching" to put "uppity blacks" in their place if they chose to be conservatives.
