GWEN IFILL:

Twenty-five years ago this October, University of Oklahoma law Professor Anita Hill changed Supreme Court confirmation hearings forever. Twenty million households tuned in to see her testify that her former boss, nominee Clarence Thomas, sexually harassed her.

The hearings continued through the weekend, touching hot buttons of sex, power and race. Thomas called it a high-tech lynching.

HBO Films retells the story in "Confirmation," starring Kerry Washington and Wendell Pierce as Thomas.