Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder speaks at the Voting Rights Brain Trust event during the 2014 Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference in Washington. On Thursday, Holder announced he would be stepping down as attorney general.WASHINGTON – Moments after making fresh demands that Attorney General Eric Holder open federal investigations into police shootings of unarmed black men, a cluster of civil rights activists learned, courtesy of whispers and a shared e-tablet, that the nation’s first black attorney general was stepping down.
Civil rights leaders, liberal activists and black lawmakers are now left wondering what effect Holder’s impending departure will have on the high-profile efforts begun on his watch. “There’s a lot for us to calculate,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was meeting with black leaders in Washington.
Holder has been applauded by civil rights and equal rights activists as the most effective attorney general ever for their causes.
“There has been no greater ally in the fight for justice, civil rights, equal rights, and voting rights than Attorney General Holder,” declared Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers and a former NAACP national chairwoman.
But the first black attorney general could be leaving several things undone as he transitions out: