WASHINGTON — President Obama’s announcement on Thursday that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., one of the earliest members of his cabinet would resigning.
Mr. Holder, 63, became the nation’s first African-American attorney general and the president’s chief liberal warrior, especially on efforts to protect voter rights and end racial discrimination in the justice system. He also emerged as the primary political antagonist for a Republican opposition in Congress that viewed him as dismissive of existing laws and contemptuous of its oversight of his department.
“In the months ahead I will leave the Department of Justice,” Holder said at the White House, thanking President Barack Obama for the “greatest honor of my professional life.”
Though he’s stepping down, Holder said that “he will never leave the work.”
“I will continue to serve and try to find ways to make our nation even more true to its founding ideals,” he said, without offering any specifics.
President Obama stood next to Holder in the White House State Dining Room, praising the first African-American to serve as attorney general and who made civil rights and equal rights central components to his tenure at Justice.
The President noted that his department prosecuted hundreds of terror cases, “rooted out corruption and fought violent crime,” tackled financial fraud and “attacks on the Voting Rights Act.” Obama said Holder also helped to bring down the crime rate and incarceration rate by 10% over the last six years.
“Eric has done a superb job,” Obama said. “I just want to say thank you.”
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AJ Woodson
AJ Woodson is the Editor-In-Chief of Black Westchester and Co-Owner of Urban Soul Media Group, the parent company, Host & Producer of the People Before Politics Radio Show. AJ is a Father, Brother, An Author, Journalism Fellow (Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism), Hip-Hop Artist - one third of the legendary underground rap group JVC FORCE known for the single Strong Island, Radio Personality, Hip-Hop Historian, Documentarian, Activist, Criminal Justice Advocate and Freelance Journalist whose byline has appeared in several print publications and online sites including The Source, Vibe, the Village Voice, Upscale, Sonicnet.com, Launch.com, Rolling Out Newspaper, Daily Challenge Newspaper, Spiritual Minded Magazine, Word Up! Magazine, On The Go Magazine and several others.