“Wow.” “Why?” “That is so bad.” “That is terrible.” “Why?” “That is so sad.”
Those were the distraught reactions in the room full of African-American leaders one week ago, when House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced that Eric Holder was stepping down as U.S. attorney general after six years in the job.
The palpable sense of sorrow is rooted in their belief that the country’s first black attorney general, despite his imperfections, was looking out for African-Americans when other institutions had shunned their community.
“We have lost faith in the Supreme Court. We have lost faith in local law enforcement. We have lost faith in the fact that our leaders — political leaders in particular, Congress and others — have our best interests at heart. But the one person that we knew did was the attorney general,” Rep. Marcia Fudge, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told TPM in an interview.
Fudge, a Democrat serving in the House since 2008, represents a majority-black urban district in Ohio that stretches from Cleveland to Akron. African-Americans see Holder as someone who “really has stood in the gap when so many others have failed,” she said, citing his responses to the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act and the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. “And so there was a great deal of hope and promise in his leading of the department because we always knew we’d get a fair shot.”
Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, speaks at a rally to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 24, 2013, in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Cornell W. Brooks, the president of the NAACP, told TPM the black community feels a rare and “almost personal” sense of loss, and that Holder has made them “extraordinarily proud.”
“When you juxtapose a series of public institutions that have failed African-Americans in particular, and the public more broadly, and you have a public servant who — imperfectly, but well — fulfills his obligations to the country, it stands out,” Brooks said. “People have favorite presidents. They may have a favorite congressperson or senator. But I’m not sure how common it is to have a favorite attorney general.”
Holder’s legacy will span from his crackdown on restrictive voting laws to his pioneering efforts to ensure low-income defendants have lawyers to choosing not to challenge states’ legal marijuana pushes. He’ll also be remembered for his direct rhetoric, starting with his Feb. 2009 speech saying the United States had been a “nation of cowards” when it comes to confronting racial inequities. That was the start of a deeply uneasy — if not outright hostile — relationship with conservatives, which has deteriorated over his tenure.
“It reminds me of the reconciliation process that went on in South Africa after apartheid. There was a need to discuss the issues, as painful as it was, and move on as a nation together,” Hilary O. Shelton, the director of NAACP’s Washington bureau. “I’ve always gotten that from [Holder].”
Shelton has known Holder since he served as assistant AG in the Clinton administration. “He has a great sense of humor,” Shelton said, recalling one conversation they had early in his tenure as AG. “We were talking one day about getting settled into the job, and he says, ‘It’s an amazing thing just trying to keep your composure and sense of humanity about you when I start every morning with an 8 or 8:30 [National Security] briefing on everybody that tried to kill us the night before! Sometimes it takes a minute to adjust and keep your faith in humanity.'”
United States Attorney General Eric Holder, left, shares a moment with Cong. John Lewis, (D-Ga.) in Selma, Ala., Sunday, March 8, 2009, on the 44th anniversary of the Voting Rights March. (AP Photo/ Kevin Glackmeyer)
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who was on the front lines of the civil rights movement in the 1950s, said in a statement that Holder’s resignation “a great loss for any American seeking justice in our society. He became the symbol of fairness, an embodiment of the best in the federal government.” Al Sharpton, a civil rights activist and MSNBC host, called Holder “the best Attorney General this nation has ever had in the area of civil rights and voting rights.”
Holder has faced his share of criticism from progressives, too, over issues like the ongoing militarization of local police departments under his watch, and for aggressively cracking down on whistleblowers within the Obama administration.
But overall, “he will be sorely missed,” Shelton said. Fudge, the black caucus chair, said the African-American community wants a successor built in Holder’s image.
“We all know it’s a great loss,” she said. “We are only hopeful and prayerful that the person who replaces him will have the same belief system, will have the same strength and courage, and the same ability to say what he thinks.”
For African-Americans, losing Holder feels like losing a “beloved colleague,” Brooks said. “I’ve seldom seen anything like it.”
