Before Thomas became a federal judge, worked in the Department of Education and later U.S. president Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 1982 to 1990.
After President George H.W. Bush nominated Thomas to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court of Justice Thomas's nomination hearings, U.S. Senate and the vote was scheduled.
Two days before the scheduled vote, Hill, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Thomas had sexually harassed her when she was his boss at the Department of Education and the EEOC.
Time magazine described what followed as a "circus ugly" in which both Thomas and Hill were "gutted."
Hill said that Thomas repeatedly asked her out on dates and spoke bluntly about his sexual prowess and the things he had seen in pornographic films. She said she rejected his advances and always tried to change the subject when he started talking about sex.
Read the transcript of the testimony of Hill and Thomas replica here.
She said the harassment subsided for a while, so feel safe to follow him to his new position at the EEOC. However, the thrust of the dates and sexual conversation resumed and even increased in the new job, told the commission, whose chairman was Senator Joe Biden, Democrat of Delaware.
"He began to show displeasure in the tone of his voice and his attitude in his continued pressure for an explanation [of why I would not go with him]," said Hill. "He referred to what I had in terms of if I did more or less sex appeal. The incident occurred in his office at the EEOC.
"One of the oddest episodes I remember was an occasion in which Thomas was drinking a Coke in his office, he rose from the table where we were working, went to her desk to get the Coca-Cola looked at the can and asked, "Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?"
Hill said he was hospitalized for five days with severe stomach pain that she attributed to work-related stress and subsequently sought employment elsewhere.
She said she finally consented to go to dinner with Thomas once in their last day of work with the government. During dinner, he said, Thomas told him that if he ever told anyone about his behavior that would ruin his career.
"This was not an apology nor an explanation," he said.
The media went crazy on the testimony of Hill, which was broadcast live on television and radio. Some senators and others who supported Thomas questioned his veracity and even her mental state.
Thomas demanded to be allowed Hill to refute the charges and clear his name before the Senate voted on his confirmation, so the vote was postponed for a week.
"This is a person you have helped every step of the way since we met," Thomas told the Judiciary Committee. "She seemed to appreciate the cordial relationship that had continued since the first day. He sought my advice and comfort, like virtually all members of my staff.
"During my stay in the executive and manager, as a politician and as a person, I have roundly condemned sexual harassment. There is no member of this committee or the Senate that he feels more strongly about sexual harassment than I do. As a manager, I did my best to take swift and decisive action when sexual harassment raised or reared its ugly head.
"The fact that I feel very strongly about sexual harassment and spoke loudly about the issue in the EEOC has made these statements doubly difficult for me. I can not imagine anything I said or did to Anita Hill, who may have been confused with sexual harassment. "
The Senate confirms appointment of Thomas the October 15, 1991, by a vote of 52-48, the closest the Supreme Court confirmation vote in history.
Thomas would later refer to the audience as a "high-tech lynching for an arrogant black."
Thomas became one of the most conservative judges on the court, and one of the least heard. Rarely asks questions during oral arguments and rarely gives interviews, but a 2004 Washington Post profile suggests that it takes considerable influence.
Hill now teaches law at Brandeis University and spends his free time painting and drawing, according to a 2005 CNN.com.
The controversy over allegations of Hill took the workplace sexual harassment to light. According to an analysis of George Mason University Documents EEOC, sexual harassment cases more than doubled in five years after Thomas's nomination. During the same period, compensation to victims under federal laws rose from $ 7.7 to 27.8 million dollars, the records show.
The scandal became a textbook case for teaching about sexual harassment and how employees and employers should deal with it.
The case also may have encouraged women to enter politics, as many women were appalled by the way Hill was questioned by the Senate panel all men.
"Anita Hill focused attention on the fact that there were no women in the Senate committee decision-making on the lives of people," said Harriet Woods, former president of the National Women's Political Caucus, according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, Illinois.
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