Women Who Testified Against Anita Hill, Part III

Here is the testimony of another woman who worked with both Thomas and Hill, and who believed Thomas:

MS. JACKSON: Chairman Biden, Senator Thurmond and members of the committee: I would like to correct the record. I am employed as a Social Science Research Analyst at the EEOC.

When I first met Clarence Thomas in 1981, he was Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education. My work required him to contact his office to secure certain data and information. After finding out the type of information I needed, Clarence Thomas indicated that any follow-up contact I had with his office should be through his aide, Anita Hill. He described her as someone who would help me navigate and put me in touch with the right people at OCR. He spoke in terms any mentor would use, explaining she was very bright and knowledgeable about the workings of OCR.

During that time, Anita and I began to have lunch and discuss both work and personal things. She referred to Clarence Thomas with admiration, and never once mentioned anything was going wrong at work. She seemed excited to be a special assistant to a very visible public official. I never saw any strained relations between them, whenever I saw them together in the workplace or at a meeting. She would generally look at him with a smile on her face and have the kind of positive demeanor that would suggest she respected and liked him as a person.

We often discussed the social scene in Washington. In the context of such discussions, it seems that she would have mentioned something, if she were having a problem at the office, even if she did not name a specific person. Subsequent discussions I had with Anita also yielded no mention of anything improper on the part of Clarence Thomas.

It is difficult for me to believe that Anita would follow her supervisor to another agency, if he was subjecting her to the things she has alleged. I remember Anita Hill as an intelligent woman and one who would have found some way to retain her job at the department or find another in either the public or private sector, if she were unhappy.

After meeting Clarence Thomas through my job, I ran into him in the hallway of my apartment building and found we lived in the same place. We began to have numerous conversations about work, politics and personal issues. We became very good friends in the process.

I believe I know the basic nature of this man better than most people in this room. I believe, unequivocally, Clarence Thomas' denial of these allegations. This is a very honorable man who has the highest respect for women. He always treated me with utmost respect and was more sensitive to women than most men I know. He never engaged me in discussions of any kind that could be considered demeaning to women.

He was often troubled by those women he knew, both professionally and women, who were having difficulties with personal problems, particularly treatment by male friends, co-workers or spouses. He and I had numerous conversations about abuse of women, physically, emotionally and verbally. You see, Senators, he helped me pick up the pieces of my own crushed spirit, after I left an abusive marriage.

His sensitivity and honor, his respect for women, his helping attitude toward all people in need, makes these allegations even more ludicrous.

See also: Women Who Testified Against Anita Hill, Part II and Women Who Testified Against Anita Hill, Part I.