Eric Holder, the country’s first African-American attorney general, talked about the killing of Trayvon Martin in personal terms Tuesday, telling an audience at the NAACP 2013 Convention how the shooting prompted him to have a conversation with his 15-year-old son about race.
“Trayvon’s death last spring caused me to sit down to have a conversation with my own 15-year-old son, like my dad did with me. This was a father-son tradition I hoped would not need to be handed down,” Holder said. “But as a father who loves his son and who is more knowing in the ways of the world, I had to do this to protect my boy. I am his father and it is my responsibility, not to burden him with the baggage of eras long gone, but to make him aware of the world he must still confront. This is a sad reality in a nation that is changing for the better in so many ways.”
Holder also said the death of Trayvon Martin reminded him of experiences he had as a young man of being pulled over and having his car searched twice on the New Jersey Turnpike for no apparent reason. More recently, when he was a federal prosecutor, he was stopped by a police officer while going to a movie at night in Georgetown in D.C.
“As important as it was, I am determined to do everything in my power to ensure that the kind of talk I had with my son isn’t the only conversation that we engage in as a result of these tragic events,” he added.
