Tanya Mosley

This is Fresh Air.

I want to go back to 1991 when President Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

And to remind the audience, Anita Hill, she was a law professor at the time.

She worked for Thomas at the EEOC, and she testified that he had sexually harassed her.

And mainstream feminists defended Hill but couldn't speak to her race.

And black communities...

You know, there was this contentious thing that was happening of choosing between race and gender.

And you were actually on Hill's prep team.

What did the country show you that week when you were working on that prep team?

And then 33 years later, after Anita Hill, you watched Kamala Harris run for president.

And something like 92% of Black women voted for her, but the country by and large did not.

And when you watched all of that, what did you recognize?

You know, I'm talking to you, Kimberly.

The week that the Supreme Court struck down a congressional map that had been drawn to create a second majority black district under the Voting Rights Act, Clarence Thomas was in the majority there in that 6-3 decision.

This summer, our country turns 250.

And as America prepares to throw itself a party,

What is the right word for what you are carrying right now?

Kimberly Williams Crenshaw, thank you so much for this book and this conversation.

pioneering legal scholar Kimberly Williams Crenshaw.

Her new book is called Backtalker, an American memoir.