Anita Hill to receive UC Merced’s Spendlove Prize

Anita Hill, whose testimony 25 years ago during Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas led to many changes in workplace sexual-harassment laws, will receive the Alice and Clifford Spendlove Prize in Social Justice, Diplomacy and Tolerance from UC Merced.

At a ceremony this fall, Hill will become the 10th recipient of the Spendlove Prize.

The award was established at UC Merced’s opening in 2005 through a gift from Sherrie Spendlove in honor of her parents, lifelong Merced residents.

“Anita Hill is a powerful role model for having the courage and the integrity to step up and speak the truth, for her calm dignity in holding to her truth in the face of vicious attacks and for her steadfastness in dedicating her life to teaching, mentoring, educating and enlightening young people in the tenets of social justice,” Spendlove said in a news release.

The 1991 hearings – portrayed in the recent HBO film “Confirmation,” with Kerry Washington portraying Hill – are considered a watershed moment for women’s rights.

Spendlove said that more women ran for and were voted into legislative office in the years following the hearings.

“Dr. Hill gave public voice to the injustice represented by sexual harassment, which women previously suffered in silence, and her courage exemplifies the qualities that the prize honors,” said Jill Robbins, dean of UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts. “As a professor at Brandeis University, with publications addressing inequalities in housing, education and money-lending practices, Dr. Hill remains a role model for women and men concerned with questions of social justice.”

Hill is to receive the award Oct. 24 at Merced Theatre.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Anita Hill to receive UC Merced’s Spendlove Prize."