In the fall of 1991, Anita Hill got a phone call from another lawyer she knew, Emma Coleman Jordan. Hill’s sexual harassment allegations against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas were breaking news.
“She made the call that saved my life,” says Hill. “I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn’t have a lawyer, didn’t even know that I needed one, but she knew that I did.” Not only did Jordan recruit the pro bono legal team, headed by Harvard Law School’s Charles Ogletree Jr., that advised Hill as she testified in front of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, she was also instrumental in strategically figuring out how the team should handle the proceedings, recounts Hill.
