against the civil rights movement. he ran for president four times and lost. one of those efforts cut short by an assassination attempt. this week, george wallace from the governor's mansion in montgomery, alabama. >> it has been 20 years since anita hill testified to congress alleging that clarence thomas harassed her career she recently spoke at hunter college for about one hour triet. >> thank you so much, so much.

thank you, pat, for that wonderful introduction. i am really excited to talk with you. >> i am looking forward to it myself. i want to turn to your book in just a moment, but i also want to begin, because i know that you had wanted to talk about how your team was put together for that hearing, and to the knowledge so many of the people who are here today from the opening salvo in history. did you want to say just a few things? >> i always like to say thank you. i did testify, and many of you have this vision, the image of me sitting there by myself at that long table with all of the senators lined up in front of me, but i also want to remind you that i had some wonderful

people who, as i say, had my back, who came together really, because they believed in the process, the integrity of the court, as i did, and they wanted to make sure that at best i could be fairly treated as best as they could help me. one of those people -- i see one of those people i know, judith resnik, who you heard from this morning. prof. judith resnik. professor charles ogle three who you also heard from -- ogletree who was also heard from. professor and a jordan is somewhere in the audience. there were so many others. janet napolitano, john frank,

warner gardner, kim crenshaw, who i am looking forward to hearing this afternoon, i kim taylor thompson, who is here in the city teaching at nyu. maybe some of her students are here in the city today. so many people came together. many of those people were my colleagues in teaching. as pat said, there were so few of us in lot teaching, and these wonderful individuals, including judith resnik, who knew me when i was a student at yale law school, all came together. people talk about our hot shot team. it was a pretty hot shot team, but it was not the high-powered law firm that people make it out to be. i just want to say, 20 years later, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of them, and for what you do now. [applause]

>> i know you mentioned that two members of your team have passed on, warner gardner and tom frank. -- john frank. i wonder if you could share that moment when you realized that this was something beyond a single moment of testimony. >> when i look at into today's audience, and certainly in the immediate days following the hearing, i have lots of support from women. but john john frank had been an expert on the supreme court and the confirmation process. he was there, he volunteered and came from arizona. i did not know he was going to come. at the end of my morning testimony, he came to me in tears and he said, "i know this is very hard for you.

i know this is a challenge, but you have no idea of how important this is to our country." i was at that point trying to get through the rest of the day. i do not think i fully appreciated then exactly what he was saying to me. here was this man who had been at yale many years ago in the practice of law and studied the supreme court. he was saying to me that this was an important moment in our country's history. it was as if so he looked into the future and had seen you today. i really do want to remember him especially. it was in a little way may be preparing me for what was to come, but i do not think anything could prepare me for

today.am steering geaseeing hee is wonderful. >> i think this moment could allow us to forget exactly what you did go through when you say this is difficult. this was traumatizing as well. as alan simpson promised, in addition to all the accusations, waving the bible talking about exorcisms -- >> that was a moment. [laughter] >> but he did not go away with the hearing. if followed you for quite some time. there were security issues, practically emotional torture to the extent that even friends of yours were forced to move from oklahoma. little packages of what you described as a fecal matter were

sent in the mail to you. there were constant security issues for you for quite a bit of time and even to the present. >> it is a testament to my friends and colleagues that i was able to continue. there was pressure at the university of oklahoma for me to be fired. it was coming from officials, legislators, state legislators. when that did not work, there were threats to the existence of the law school and the funding of the law school. that was an effort for my colleagues to turn against me. one of the women who was on the faculty then -- i believe she is here. shirley was with me on the team and came with me from oklahoma to help out in any way that she

could. she ultimately did leave oklahoma and went on to have a great career. 20 years is a long time to keep people together. the people who were on that team in the beginning are still with make. the witnesses who were friends of mine back in the early 1980's are still my friends today. there are all kinds of pressures that are put on people. and the of you who have gone through these kinds of claims and problems and issues in your own workplaces or attempted to critique correct problems knows that you can lose people along the way. i have been very, very fortunate not only to keep those people

about also to really engage with a lot of supporters threw out these last 20 years that have made what i do in my survival possible. you talk about the difficulty -- it was very difficult. when you return from a testimony that has become this event that you really had no idea what it was going to be what it was -- i would walk out onto the street. they did polling immediately after the hearing, and it showed that 70% of the population thought that i had perjured myself. in addition to the pressures i was having on the job, the threats to me personally, bomb threats, the law school at my home, i had to go to the grocery

store and realize that seven out of 10 people that i would encounter at the supermarket thought that i had perjured myself and my testimony. so, psychologically, the pressure was difficult. of the pressure at work was difficult. and the fact that your family is going through this with you in a very public wy was difficult-- public way was difficult. i was also quite fortunate. >> at one point you said you wanted your life back. i remember hearing you describe having to give that up as a part of the healing process and moving on. do you mind sharing more about that? >> i think that was very much

the toughest part for me and initially. ok, i have given this testimony. a week or so later, the vote was taken. i wanted to say, ok, it is over. enough is enough. i want my life back. i really resented that i could not get it back. once i let go of that idea and said, you know, it is not going to happen that way. i have a different life now. the question i had to ask myself is what life do i want? i could accept that it was not going to be the life that i had. it was a pretty good life. i like it. i knew it was not going to happen again. out of this, what am i going to have that i can shape, that i

can claim for myself so i can continue to do what i do to be productive, to care about the things that i care about and continue to live? that happened perhaps six months or so after the hearing. i had to figure out really what my resources cannot my talents were, what i could do, and what my options and opportunities were. and what kind of support i would be getting to move forward with this new life that i had a chance to shape. those were all things that i had to really sit down and account for. the other thing that i had to do was to say, you know what? it was an important event. it is helped to shape my life,

but it is just an event. it is not me. it is not who i am. so, i had to get back and understand who i am and why i was on this earth in order to move forward. >> i want to turn to your story. i want to say that i feel's about the term -- feel possessive about the term "anita's story." i remember barbara underwood came to yale law school and she described what is very common for women of my age. there were no ladies' rooms so she was assigned to the janitor's closet to go to the bathroom.

my conference story is apparently -- j assigned a security guard to the men's room here just outside the hall to keep all of us from taking it over. [laughter] i love this are: times. -- ark of time. >> i am the real anita. [laughter] [applause] >> as contained in your book, which is a phenomenal book -- i cannot say enough what a gorgeous writer. she writes like a dream. in the title, you use the word "home." tomorrow will be the 100th anniversary of your late mother.

you dedicate this book to her and your grandmother and your great-grandmother. i wonder if you could talk a little bit about the framing of the discussion of the housing crisis in terms of the women in your life. you told me a story about ken burns. i wonder if you could start with that. >> we have all seen the wonderful documentary's that ken burns does on pbs. after the conclusion of the one on jag, i had a conversation with the filmmaker. it was really a moving conversation for me because what he said was that he had grown up -- he and i are roughly the same age. he had grown up during the civil rights era of. -- era.

i believe he lost his mother at that time when he was about 12 years old. so this was a very emotional time in his life and a time that had stuck in his memory. when he came up with the trilogy, the first was the civil war, the second was baseball, and the third was jazz. for him, each of those were metaphors about race in america. i found that very moving. if you think about it, it makes sense. but then again, it does not. my question to him was well is there and metaphor for race? is there a way for us to think about and talk about race that is not so male-dominated? if you think about the civil war, jazz, or music, most of the

stores were about male artists. baseball, of course, the first league formed after world war ii. how do we have a conversation about race and that includes women? -- race that includes women? his response was i did a piece on it susan b. anthony to talk about gender. well, that is a little problematic, too, because we know in the suffrage movement, there was a marginal causation of african american women. other women of color just did not even appear, because native americans were not included in women's suffrage. how do we then have a conversation about gender that

is not racialized? so, i started thinking about ways to do that. what is our metaphor for thinking about equality that does not rely on male domination nor racialization? how can we have an inclusive conversation about the quality? there is one element that looms large in our quest for equality, and that is "home." the finding of the home, whether it is the establishing of a place that one cause their own when we think about stories like "a reason in the sun," and how significant the home is. for those of you who do not know sun," therehe

is a more popular reference -- "the jeffersons." in order to show that "the jefferson's" had made it, they moved on up to the upper east side. it was not just any place on the upper east side. it was a "de luxe apartment in the sky." [laughter] they did not even eat the same kind of food anymore. this was the symbol of them having made it. but you also know and maybe have not thought about this that when louise jefferson has made it, she becomes a stay at home mother, and what does she do? she getse a maid who is a

black maid. all of these issues about the significance of home and how we define it and how it figures and are thinking about the quality really was in my mind. than the housing crisis hit. and the collapse of the housing market really devastated communities and send some many people really in chaos. and i started reading the stories about how it was being read in the press, and so few of the stories included the impact it was having on women. women of color in particular, women living on their own, trying to buy homes on their own. i realized that the housing

crisis is not only a set back economically. is a setback in our social advances for women -- it is a setback in our social advances for women. women were out there buying homes on their own for the last 20 years. this was a social advancement for women because we were finally saying, "look, we can do this on our own. we do not have to wait until we have a spouse or a partner." that was an important movement that was occurring in the year 2005. so i wanted to tell the story of the significance of home without really having to tell it through the lens of male domination, to really tell the story through the eyes of the women i talk about in the book.

>> yet this story has been so under-stated in the media. at one point, you point out why it is so ignored. >> it has been ignored in some ways because the presumption is that the home includes two parents and children, and teh assumption is it is a man and a woman. that is how we have thought about the home and home policy. so, that is what the media has followed. they have not a dog and and look at who is a new home buying market was -- they have not dug in and looked at who the new home buying market was. when i look back at my own family stories, i realize that

when my grandparents homestead in arkansas in 1895 -- it was a significant milestone in our family achievement. my grandfather had gone from being born a slave to owning property. that was significant. that was a significant milestone. they lost that farm. circumstances that were not unlike what is going on today. bad credit options, a poor economy, racial and unrest and violence. that was significant, too, and it had an impact on my mother as well as our family. for generations to come. when i look here at a college and i think about young people today, i realize that this home

in security that we are experiencing now will indeed have an impact on their future. it may be even having an impact on their present whether or not they are able to get student loans through their parents because of what is going on now. all of these things we need to begin to address, and that is what came together. >> you pointed out the dirt. -- the degree to which the statistics are lacking because the statisticians do not know whether to count women because they are counted as a divorced or widowed, but the frame of reference is to a man. >> it is so significant because what we know now is that that dynamic, the family dynamic, is just not representative of a huge part of the population of where we are.

the real things that i think about when i write this book is people say that we know you as your testimony 20 years ago. that is very much a part of who i am. but i have also been teaching for those 20 years. what i really enjoyed about this book was that it brings together so many parts of my life. it brings together in my life as a teacher. it brings together my life as an ancestor -- i mean as a granddaughter of a slave. a great granddaughter of a woman who was a single mother for 10 years when she moved from

slavery to being a free person even though she lived in the same place for those first 10 years. it brings together my history. it brings together some of the impact that the hearings had on me. it really brings to me the issue of the quality that i care about. sexual harassment is one of those issues. what i try to do in this book is to give voice to the people who have not been heard from during this crisis. that is really what i was trying to do -- what i have been trying to do with the issue of sexual harassment for the past 20 years to help people to find their voices, to talk about the issues that keep them from living life fully and as equals. i want to leave some time for

questioning, but one final question. you tell a lovely story in your book and i wonder if you could read a quick paragraph on your definition of "home." >> i do have a vision that i think -- i call it my 21st century vision of the quality. i thought i had a right there on that page. now i have to juggle the microphone. one thing that has happened in the past 20 years -- [laughter] yes, i have the reading glasses now. the final chapter is called "home at last." i define "home" -- i have three definitions. a lens through which one can safely view the world. we know that for some many women, a place inside tehe

home is not a safe place. it is an important element for us to have that home to view the world safely. the second part of the definition is a place where one's ideas, experiences, and work are seen as valuable. that, for me, is home and it symbolizes so much of what is living in the lives of women, the valuing of our work, whatever it is, not that we are trying to emulate anything but how we are trying to be valued for who we are and what we offer, not only for our work but our ideas and experiences as well. physical body, the

being and the place where it is welcomed. it is a physical state of being as well as a place. in my great-grandmother had to imagine what freedom was like after living her life as a slave. she had to imagine what freedom was like for herself and her son, my grandfather. my mother, when she sent me after college or high school and then to college into a world that she had no understanding of, she had to imagine for me in 1970 what equality was going to be like for me. she had to help me imagine because it was not her experience having been born in 1911.

she sent me out with two sets of luggage. she had to imagine really for herself and her children what the quality was going to be like. i think we are at that juncture now it. we must imagine for a new generation what equality is going to be like. we have reached the point now, for example, where we have said sexual harassment -- which can raise our voices and complain about it. but we also should imagine a workplace where it no longer exists. [applause] so, we are constantly working on the quality. we are putting together all the pieces. when we talk about the events going on in the world, the

occupation of wall street. when we think about all the issues that we are struggling with today, all of us are urging us to imagine what the quality is going to be like in the 21st century. we have so much energy in this room today. we have so many ideas. we have heard from so many wonderful people, and we are going to hear from others. all of those are helping us to imagine a better world for the next generation. i could not be more proud than i am today to be a part of that, and i think you. thank you. [applause] >> we are going to take questions now. while people come forward, if you would like to tell the luggage story that begins her

book. >> when i was 17 years old and graduated from college, my mother told me one day that i want you to come with me and we are going to visit a family friend. the family friend was an african american teacher who taught some of my siblings english. at the time when i graduated from school, she had gotten older, sick. she traveled fairly widely in her life but was no longer able to travel. she said she had something to give me. it was a set of samsonite luggage. i guess now is called vintage. it had her initials on it. four years later, my mother gave me a gift when i was going off

to law school. that gift was my own sert of samson that luggage. it was brand new samson night nite luggage. my mother sent me off with two sets of luggage. the older version and now my own set of samsonite. in that, for me,; the symbolism from both of those women who were sending me out to a world that would be so different from their own and the courage that each of them had to say ok i have prepared you i have given you something go out and claim your own life claim your own home and be all that you can be. i think about it today.

people say what is the best gift you ever had? i say ait was those two sets of luggage and what it symbolized for may. that is my story. [applause] i say give your daughters luggage and not baggage. [laughter] >> hi. i wondered in the context of your comments about "home." was your family impacted by the tulsa race riot war? >> we remained on the farm. even though they were in oklahoma at the time of the tusa they were not,

really affected by it directly being out in the rural area. they happened in 1921 i believe. in an urban area in tulsa that was primarily black and quite prosperous. ooted and burned. to this day, many people do not know how many people were killed during those "race riots," which were really mass murders. they had an indirect impact in terms of people did not go to the city after that. immediate impact we did not have. >> professor hill, what a

pleasure to hear you. >> thank you. i'm fine. thank you. [laughter] >> i spent my time at harvard because they had a really good events. we had a theorist who was there during that year and i turned to her and said it does anybody know if anita hill is ok? i want to get to a question about home. d.s. news reported a story last week that one in three americans is a paycheck away from losing their home. we also know that the economic crisis that is a flooding our courts with new money-related

cases with foreclosures, unemployment, medicare, child support, domestic violence, and at the same time, money for legal services is being rolled back a 2000 levels. the administration is not leading a very good fight about increasing its or keeping it at 2011 levels. given the increasing need and decreasing access to justice, i would be interested in hearing your thoughts about closing the justice gap either through advocacy or in terms of using all of these unemployed law students that are running around. i would be interested in hearing your thoughts about closing the gap. it is great to see you. >> i do propose a number of things in my book. part of it is through better

enforcement of the programs that are out there that are supposedly helping people to stay in their homes. the problem that i see is about inequalities that the been built into the living system, that have been built into it and have become institutionalized because of years and years of discrimination against women, people of color, the way that communities have developed over the past few years. there are even bigger inequalities' when we start talking about women's income. they tend to, because of the pay differential, are going to have less money to access homes. we also know that women, many of them, will spend about 50% of

that lower income on their home. these are the kinds of things -- and that is higher than the rate of men that spend on their home. these are the things that i think we need to begin to address. what i propose is something that i am calling -- i propose that the administration get involved. i suggested to the council on women and girls should be a place where we can get this conversation started. is there anybody out here who has access to the council of women and girls? yes, i have one hand. can you take that message to the council because -- it is one agency that is charged with improving access to women and

their families. there is no more critical of an issue for women and their families than homes and housing. so there is a role for the administration to play, but it has to be very comprehensive. it cannot simply be just renegotiating mortgages. and using free labor of law student to do that. it has to be really rethinking a lot of the process about how people find homes. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> i am a city council member in new york city. [cheers and applause] i was here in 1992. at the end of the conference, i was working for the mayor.

you kindly came back to dinner, so i want to thank you for coming that night. >> thank you for finding a. >> you were terrific and as you are today. we spend a great deal of time now trying to stop cyber bullying and bullying in thes schools. as somebody who has taught for a long time and given your experience, do you think we as a country are doing enough to stop the bullying? >> i think we are beginning to understand the issue of napoleon. there was a piece in the new theytimes at todtoday about why are being bullied. my experience really in terms of dealing with people with workplace issues is that in some ways there is an analogy, that

what is going on in the workplace is an extension of the kind of bullying that happens to people when they are in schools. as charles below road today, it is a lot of ways about identity, perceptions of whether someone is a masculine enough, whether someone is gay or straight. all of these things or ways that we have, using our power over other people in ways that really prevent them from doing what they are hired to do in teh workplace or going to school and learning. have we done enough? i do not think we have because the problem continues. i am not an expert on what more we can do. i think we are starting to

become aware of the problem, and that is the beginning. that is the beginning. thank-you. >> hi. i hope you can bear with my other terror in being up here. what to want to ask is a very personal question, in that how do you deal with having had to deal with so much? how do you deal with fear? not over it, udner it, but through it? >> thank you. [applause] well, thank you for that question. i think you have dealt with fear. [applause] you set out and you asked your question. i think the audience here has

demonstrated how i have dealt with my own fear. that is through the help and support of many others. but the first part really is to walk up and confront it. i know there were times when i was afraid. i knew there were times when i stepped out and i did not know what was going to happen to me next-- there are many people out

there that will share your story and your fear and be there to help you. i had to learn to reach out. i was always a very private person. the other part of it is you are trained not to show that you have some weakness. because we are all supposed to be strong and tough. and i had to let go of some of that. but i thank you because even though you are talking about fear, is an act of bravery to stand up and ask a question. not that this is a hostile

group, but this is a group of pretty strong folks. so, thank you so much. [applause] >> hi. good afternoon and thank you for your time. i am a journalist. in your introduction that was given by ms. williams, she made a reference to the idea of what does credibility look-alike. in light of your position as a professor dealing with young people, students, and young women, i was wondering how you counsel young women that you encounter on dealing with the idea of being in excellent students, may be great people in the way that they are seen by their peers or are perhaps shot down if they are put in a position like the spotlight that you were put in. >> we talked about organizing

this conference -- one of the things i said that i wanted to be sure of is that we had young people in this room. i wanted young people and people of all ages because i think there is a sharing there. for me, when i talk to young people i have the luxury of talking to them one-on-one so i get to sit down and say what do you see as your strength. what do you think you are good at? then build on that. if you go out -- people say i think you should work on your deficiencies. you know, yeah, but that always puts you in a hole. so i like to tell people go out

on your strengths. what are your strengths? what do you care about? what are you passionate about? what do you know that you do well? with that, you can build your confidence. even though there will be circumstances that you will not be expected for all that you have to offer. just knowing what your strengths are and understanding what they are will help get you beyond those situations, realizing which of them are important and those that are not important for you to continue what you need to do. this may sound contradictory. find something that is a challege to you that you really want to do, something that stretches you. because even if you get a little

bit closer to that goal, you've started to grow. and that -- there is nothing more rewarding than facing something that is a challenge to you that you come closer to because you know you have given everything that you have. even if you do not -- may be your challenge is to win the nobel prize for peace. i would applaud that. you may not win the nobel prize for peace. but if you engage in activity that promotes peace, then that's a victory in it of itself. find things that you are challenged to do, set some goals, and then go out and try to achieve it in your own life and in your own way.

again, all of this takes the conversation about who you are and what you care about. so i do not give it very often generic advice because i think advice ought to be individualized and specific. you are a journalist. do you want to win a pulitzer prize? >> [inaudible] >> how are you going to go about doing it? are you writing now? so you have already started on the road to your pulitzer prize. >> yes. [laughter] >> what is your next step? >> to continue to expand and continue to talk to people like yourself. >> what would make you the happiest? >> i am very interested in issues that affect women. i like to look at all issues from a gender perspective.

might thesis was on human trafficking and how it affects women and girls. >> have you thought about turning that into a book? >> yes. >> have you allied aid? >> yes. [laughter] >> see? you are already there. [applause] those are the kinds of conversations that i like to have. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> that is just the beginning of our conversation. >> good afternoon. it is an honor to hear you. i was hoping that you could tell us a little bit about the experience of getting the voicemail message a year ago. virginia thomas, clarence thomas' wife left a voicemail on

your machine, i think asking for an olive branch but basically asking for your apology. what was it like to hear it? how does it sit with you a year later? >> i will be honest. i did not know that it was her. i thought it was a prank. my first description of it was that it was bizarre. either way if it was a prank or her. as you know, it became a news story. but then, honestly, once it became a news story, i remember within 24, 36, or maybe 48 hours, i got about 500 e-mails about this, how inappropriate was. but what really stuck with me is how passionate people were

writing about it. honestly, i started talking to people. kathleen was one of them. emma jordan at georgetown was 1. i said this issue still resonates with people. [applause] do not let the moment be captured by something like her voicemail. let's take the passion ourselves. and shape it. and out of this came this conference that happened last week. i am going to be going to detroit. i am going to visit with an all- girls academy in detroit to talk about issues that they are facing. that is my reaction to that voice mail. [cheers and applause]

>> i think we are only going to take the questions of the speakers that are in line. we are running a little bit over time. >> i will answer in short answers. >> i just want to say that when the hearings were going on years ago, i was in hollywood working for a production company. can you imagine what i heard? "you are making the holding up." what astounds me is that recently i learned that there were people who could have corroborated your evidence, and they were not allowed to speak. i think how this resonates to modern-day. i think about the banking crisis, and i think about all the regular people who really have a little say over what information gets out.