i knew his secretary, diane holt. we had worked together at both eeoc and education. there were occasions on which i spoke to her, and on some of these occasions undoubtedly i passed on some casual comment to then chairman thomas. there were a series of calls in the first three months of 1985, occasioned by a group in tulsa, which wished to have a civil rights conference. they wanted judge thomas to be the speaker and enlisted my assistance for this purpose.
i did call in january and february to no effect, and finally suggested to the person directly involved, susan cahal (ph) that she put the matter into her own hands and call directly. she did so in march of 1985. in connection with that march invitation, ms. cahal (ph) wanted conference materials for the seminar and some research was needed. i was asked to try to get the information and did attempted to do so.
there was another call about another possible conference in july of 1985. in august of 1987, i was in washington, dc and i did call diane holt. in the course of this conversation, she asked me how long i was going to be in town and i told her. it is recorded in the message as august 15. it was, in fact, august 20th. she told me about judge thomas's marriage and i did say congratulate him.
it is only after a great deal of agonizing consideration that i am able to talk of these unpleasant matters to anyone except my closest friends. as i've said before these last few days have been very trying and very hard for me and it hasn't just been the last few days this week. it has actually been over a month now that i have been under the strain of this issue.
telling the world is the most difficult experience of my life, but it is very close to having to live through the experience that occasion this meeting. i may have used poor judgment early on in my relationship with this issue. i was aware, however, that telling at any point in my career could adversely affect my future career. and i did not want early on to burn all the bridges to the eeoc.
as i said, i may have used poor judgment. perhaps i should have taken angry or even militant steps, both when i was in the agency, or after i left it. but i must confess to the world that the course that i took seemed the better as well as the easier approach.
i declined any comment to newspapers, but later when senate staff asked me about these matters i felt i had a duty to report. i have no personal vendetta against clarence thomas. i seek only to provide the committee with information which it may regard as relevant.