Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder honored for Civil Rights work

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, 64, received the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Equal Justice Award Dinner Wednesday night in New York. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund heralded his work to correct injustices, in particular his investigations into racial disparities in policing in Ferguson and Cleveland after the deaths of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice.

Holder, who held his first law internship with the Legal Defense Fund while he studied at Columbia Law School, spoke with The Huffington Post about the personal significance of the award.

“This is a night for recognition and reflection but it’s also a night for recommitment,” Holder told HuffPost. “There are still issues that we have to deal with and I think it’s good to take opportunities like this to remind people of that and to make sure we stay engaged. The battle’s not over with yet.”

Holder, now a partner at Washington, D.C.’s Covington and Burling, LLP, said a part of that battle is to “keep pushing” to correct the inequities in this country.

Read more: Huffington Post