I guess I didn't realize this isn't exactly suited for a timeline. Here's the conclusion post. This would have been much better, I suppose, as a story within a larger timeline, but unfortunately I did not have that luxury. Here's how it ends:
Senator Geraldine Anne Ferraro successfully demonstrated the vulnerabilities of Ms. Anita Hill. Rather than allowing Senator Specter (and to some extent, Senator Biden) portray Ms. Hill as a calculating woman seeking the public headlines, Senator Ferraro was able to portray Anita Hill as a victim. Subsequently, when Clarnece Thomas tried to portray the hearing as the modern-day lynching of a black man, Ferraro sassily retorted that Anita Hill herself was black and that it was ludicrous to try and claim her testimony was rooted in racism. She further responded to Thomas, "I have a problem with sexual harassment. Period. I don't care if the perpetrator is white or black. This is not an issue of race, nor even one of gender. This is an issue of decency."
When the Senate debated the nomination of Clarence Thomas on the floor, Ferraro delivered one of the most memorable floor speeches in history. She spoke for three-and-a-half hours about the problems with Mr. Thomas' nomination. She further described the stories of other victims of sexual harassment and read back some of the hearing's transcript from earlier in the week. When she left the floor, Ferraro and Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland went to work to stop the nomination of Judge Thomas from passing.
Ferraro was able to guarantee the votes of Senators Alan Dixon and Sam Nunn against the Thomas nomination. With him, Nunn brought along his Georgia colleague, Wyche Fowler. The nomination of Clarence Thomas failed 48-52. It was a major victory for the feminist movement in the United States.
President Bush called the failure of Thomas' nomination a "national tragedy" and expressed regret that Judge Thomas' good reputation was dragged through the mud "on half-reported allegations." He went on to nominate Solicitor General Kenneth Starr who was confirmed to the Court with 79 votes in favor of his nomination. Ferraro voted against Starr as well.
Geraldine Ferraro continued to serve in the Senate until she left office in January 2011 after announcing her retirement the year before. In 2007, after Democrats took control of the U.S. Senate, Ferraro was elected the Senate Majority Leader - the first woman to hold the position in American history. She battled a cancer diagnosis for the final decade of her Senate career. She died just weeks after leaving office.
Clarence Thomas never served on the Supreme Court of the United States. After the failure of his judicial nomination, one of only a handful in American history, Judge Thomas continued to serve on the bench until 1999. In 2000, Thomas ran in a special election for U.S. Senate in his home state of Georgia. He lost to Zell Miller with 46.2% of the vote. A second attempt at the seat in 2004, was similarly unsuccessful, and resulted in the election of Democrat Denise Majette. Thomas died in 2021, having retreated from the public eye. He denied the allegations of Anita Hill until his death.
Finally, Anita Hill went on to teach law at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1993-1999. While there, she began advocating for better policies regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. She left Harvard in 1999, to lobby Congress on behalf of sexual harassment, sexual assault, and rape victims. In 2000, upon the election of Al Gore to the White House and John Kerry to the vice presidency, a draft effort began for Hill to run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. She ran in the special election and won against Jane Swift, whom Governor Cellucci had appointed to fill the seat. She served as a Senator until her retirement in 2019. While in the Senate, Anita Hill became a women's rights advocate and was made famous once more for the hearings she led against military sexual assault and the subsequent legislation she was able to pass. She served two years as U.S. Attorney General (2023-2025) in the second term of President Teddy Kennedy, Jr. Anita Hill died on July 31, 2060, at the age of 104.