Anita Hill is a lawyer, activist and educationist who laid allegations of sexual harassment against a U.S. Supreme Court Justice named Clarence Thomas. She was born on July 30, 1956 in Oklahoma and was the youngest of 13 children born to Albert and Erma Hill. Her family were farmers from Arkansas and her great grandparents were born into slavery. She graduated as the class secretary, valedictorian and member of the National Honor Society from Morris High School. After this she pursued a Bachelors in psychology from Oklahoma State University from where she graduated with honors. She then went on to study law at Yale Law School, where she was among only 10 other African American students. She graduated with honors from Yale in 1980. She was admitted to the Bar the same year and started her law career with a firm named Wald, Harkrader & Ross in Washington D.C.

After spending a year at this firm, Hill accepted a job as secretary to Clarence Thomas, who, at that time, was the head of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in Washington. It was during this time that she claims Thomas began making unwanted advances towards her. He stopped temporarily when he was involved with someone else, so she decided to join him when he was appointed as the chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Around 1983, she claims that he started behaving in the same way again. Hill then decided to leave his employment, especially after being hospitalized with stress related stomach problems. She accepted a teaching position as a civil rights professor at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, and later at the University of Oklahoma College of Law as a professor of contract law. She was granted tenure after only 4 years of teaching, whereas the minimum standard is usually 6 years. She also served on the faculty senate and was appointed as the faculty administrative fellow in the Office of the Provost.

In 1991, she was asked to supply some information about Thomas to the Senate Judiciary Committee as he was then