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Where Were You When Christine Blasey Ford Told Her Story?
One year later, 10 women recount an unforgettable day on Capitol Hill
On the morning of September 27, 2018, 52-year-old Christine Blasey Ford entered the hearing room of the Senate Judiciary Committee, prepared to tell the panel, and the millions of people watching around the country, how Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in the summer of 1982 when she was 15.
The public hadn’t seen Dr. Ford before this moment. No one knew what she looked like, no one knew what she was going to say. Now, a year later, we asked 10 women what they remembered about that day: women who were present as activists, women who had to cover the hearings for their jobs, women who had experienced sexual assault, and women who found the strength to speak up.
Tarana Burke
Civil rights activist, creator of the hashtag #MeToo
I literally woke up that morning praying for Dr. Blasey Ford. What is she going through right now? How scared she must be. So I said a prayer for her. I said a prayer for us.
I was in my hotel room when I got the phone call from Senator Dianne Feinstein. She said, “I want you to come in and sit with us inside the hearing.” The room was set up with two different sides, like a wedding where no one wanted the couple to get married. Kavanaugh’s folks were on the left, closest to the door, and we were on the right. When Christine Blasey Ford came in the room, I realized we had no idea what she looked like. I remember thinking her hair was full and bouncy. She looked really buttoned up and serious. I was thinking about how she got herself pulled together for this.
Her testimony just nearly took us out. I remember thinking, sitting there, “I’ve never experienced anything like this.” It just kept hitting me, the gravity of what was happening.
I watched the whole Senate panel as she spoke, from the Republican side all the way to the Democrat side. And I kept thinking about how lonely it must be for her to be so alone in this moment, right? I didn’t feel like anybody was there for her. Listening to her describe her experience, everything about it felt true. It felt like what I know, and what…
