07-30 TABLE of CONTENTS: Anita Hill's Claim of Sexual Harassment by Thomas DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS QUOTE by Anita Hill. "Anita Hill's televised testimony...before the Senate committee riveted the nation. Millions of women immediately recognized some part of her experience as their own. And the deep, visceral anger that she ignited has far from burned itself out. Now, one short year after her testimony, Anita Hill's legacy appears certain to be enduring."             -- Los Angeles Times editorial, 1992 Why Wasn't Clarence Thomas Asked If He Read the Story About the Coke Can? Born 07-30-1956, Anita Hill, who claimed that U. S. Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her when she was a young attorney and he was head of the government bureau charged with investigating sexual harassment.       The U.S. Senate judiciary committee refused to hear her complaints as well as other women until the women members of Congress marched up the captol steps to complain to the committee. AH was finally brought before the committee in televised hearings and subject to some of the most vicious, insulting questioning ever witnessed on Capitol hill, including the one by Mormon elder U.S. Senator Orin Hatch who accused her of reading and quoting pornographic material about a pubic hair on a can of coke.       With not a single woman on the committee, the reverse question was never asked, i.e., did Thomas read the books and quote them to Hill?       That he was a reader of pornography was brought out in a previous Senate confirmation hearing for a lesser position. Thomas was confirmed, but the legacy of women's deep, visceral anger continues as the "gender gap" became evident and is electing more women to public office. There are now women on almost every committee in Congress. Polls have indicated most women no longer believe men in public office will reflect their thinking or protect their rights.       As time goes on, polls indicate that AH is believed more than she was immediately after the hearings. Thomas has always voted with one of the most ultra-conservatives on the high court and seldom asks any questions - or from newspaper reports, seldom goes to the supreme court, preferring to work out of his home.       Right-wing zealots have attempted to blacken AH's name and reputation since the hearings that had been cut off short without any attempts to substantiate Hill's charges or even hearing other women who came forward but were not heard. The campaign against Hill contained a vicious book by a regular contributor to right-wing publications such as The Spectator which went on to unearth Paula Jones, etc. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | 07-30 DATES, ANNIVERSARIES, and EVENTS B. 07-30-1751, Maria Mozart, Austrian pianist and teacher. B. 07-30-1818, Emily Bronté - British author of Wuthering Heights (1847). Emily is considered the wild, free spirit of the three Bronté sisters.       The book is considered one of the greatest written in the English language today, but at the time it was judged to be harsh, clumsily written, and savage. The brooding novel of the Yorkshire moors and the star-crossed love of Heathcliffe and Cathy was her only book.       She died at age 30 of tuberculosis. bronte B. 07-30-1883, Elizabeth Ross Haynes - U.S. community leader, social researcher, and YWCA official.       An Afro-American, born of former slaves, she devoted her life to improving the conditions for her race. B. 07-30-1894, Blanche Wolf Knopf - U.S. editor and co-publisher of the noted publishing company Alfred Knopf and who certainly deserves at least half the praise for the success and reputation of the prestigious imprint operated under her husband's name.       After a time she lived a completely separate life from him. She developed the stable of foreign writers that Knopf was most noted for as well as handling a surprising number of quality American authors. B. 07-30-1939, Eleanor Smeal - U.S. feminist activist. ES is a former president of the National Organization for Women (1977) and founder of the Feminist Majority. Event 07-30-1942: The United States Naval Reserves women's (WAVES) branch organized. B. 07-30-1947, Jan Backus - U.S. state official. JB was elected to the Vermont State Senate 1989-. B. 07-30-1958, Kate Bush - British rock singer. KB is a composing talent of marvelous originality who reduced Wuthering Heights to a three minute record in 1978 and has gone on to composing music for movies. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE | QUOTES DU JOUR HILL, ANITA:       "I regret in many ways that it [my testimony] was manipulated or misperceived. And I have my moments when I just wish that I could go back to the way things were before. But that's not realistic.       "When I think of what has happened in a larger sense, beyond myself, then I would not change anything.       "I am really proud to be a part in whatever way of women becoming active in the political scene. I think it was the first time that people came to terms with the reality of what it meant to have a Senate made up of 98 men and two women."             -- Anita Hill in a speech one year after her U. S. Senate committee testimony. | PRIOR DATE |        | HOME |       | WOA INDEX |       | NEXT DATE |   | RETURN TO TOP OF PAGE |