‘It’s Good to Be Home,’ Hill Tells Cheering Crowd

For Anita Faye Hill, it was obvious. There is no place like home.

One week ago she had burst on the national scene in a press conference alleging sexual harassment by Clarence Thomas, the man the President had chosen to join the Supreme Court. By going public with the charge, she was warned, her life would never be the same.

On Monday, with the issue of Thomas’ nomination still in doubt in Washington, she was welcomed back to the university where she teaches law.

“What has sustained me through all this has been knowing that I could return home, back to my way of life, back to you,” she told a cheering throng at the University of Oklahoma’s student union building.

She said she had told the truth.

“It was suggested that I had fantasies, that I was a spurned woman and that I had a martyr complex,” she told a crowd of about 400 people. “I will not dignify those theories except to assure everyone that I am not imagining the conduct to which I testified.”

And she said she had no regrets.

“The only personal benefit that I have received from this experience is that I have had an opportunity to serve my country,” she said. “I was raised to do what is right, and can now explain to my students firsthand that despite the high costs which may be involved, it is worth having the truth emerge.”

Her short address was interrupted by applause three times--twice when she mentioned how happy she was to be home.

She looked rested and upbeat. And to her supporters here, Anita Hill looked like she had weathered the storm just fine.

“It’s good to be home . . . back to my way of life,” said Hill, a native of Oklahoma. “I cannot wait to get back in the classroom.”

Todd Galloway, 25, a first year law student, said he expected to see her in class today. “She’s not the type to get into an emotional turmoil. She’ll want to get back to class,” he said.

Hill’s appearance was her first public statement since her appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday, in which she charged in gut wrenching detail that Thomas sexually harassed her a decade ago when she worked for him at the U.S. Department of Education and later the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

But Thomas vehemently and categorically denied each and every allegation while accusing liberal groups of conspiring with Hill to “destroy” him--in part by fabricating details that, he said, played to racial stereotypes about black men.

Thomas’ backers also questioned Hill’s motivation and sought to portray her as an emotionally unstable, and perhaps spurned, woman.

“I have been deeply hurt and offended by the nature of the attacks on my character,” Hill said Monday. “I had nothing to gain by subjecting myself to the process. In fact, I had more to gain by remaining silent.

“The personal attacks on me without an iota of evidence were particularly reprehensible, and I felt it necessary to come forward to address those attacks.”

She added: “What I hope and intend to do over the next few days with your help and support is to get back to my normal routine.”

Like her appearance Friday, her voice and eyes were steady. Unlike Friday, she smiled frequently as the applause and cheers washed over her.

Hill also urged victims of sexual harassment not to be reluctant in coming forward despite the personal attacks on her character during three extraordinary and contentious days of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington.

“I was raised to do what is right and I can now explain to my students firsthand that, despite the high cost which may be involved, it is worth having the truth emerge,” Hill said.

“I am hopeful that others who have suffered sexual harassment will not become discouraged by my experience but instead will find the strength to speak up about this serious problem,” she said.

The crowd waved banners and cheered her arrival and departure lustily.

Yolanda Johnson, 25, a first year law student, said: “It saddens me she was put through all of this because it will never be normal for her again.” But Tom Decker, 25, a political science student, contended that Hill would get all the help she needed at home.

“In Washington she was talked down to and treated with no respect whatsoever. Now that she is home, she can feel our support. This school has never rallied around an issue or a person like this.”

Wendy Anderson, 23, a zoology graduate student, held a sign saying “I believe Professor Hill.”

“I believe her beyond a shadow of a doubt,” she said. “She won’t benefit in any way. But women will gain from her courage. She got the bad end of the deal.”

Some students said it was difficult to keep their minds on class work. Many classes at the university were canceled Friday as Hill testified.

“You walk by people waiting for classes and all you hear are discussions of what is going to happen and people’s reactions to these hearings,” said Tammy Bachman, a student in Hill’s commercial law class.

Teree Foster, associate dean of the law school, agreed the controversy has been disruptive.

“When you have upwards of 50 cameramen and reporters running around at one time, there will be some disruption,” she said. “But we have functioned during all of this.”

She and others praised Hill’s demeanor during her testimony.

“I think that Anita was splendid. She was composed in a context of pressure that she has had no life preparation for,” said Foster, who knows Hill well.

Chen reported from Washington and Hart from Norman, Okla.