Capehart good evening. His life has been a series of firsts the first African American u. S. Attorney for the district of columbia, the first African AmericanDeputy Attorney general, the first African American attorney general of the United States. His life has been committed to excellence and social justice. Tonight we are here to celebrate a life well lived, and here to help us is the amazing artistry of mr. Raul midon. [playing invisible chains] midon when i was a little boy vivid dreams were my favorite toy sweet music set me free i closed my eyes to see the invisible chains invisible chains now ive grown to be a man gonna make my way with my own two hands wish that i could be absolutely free from these invisible chains invisible chains where theres a will there is a way, mmhmm where theres a will there is a way oh, whoa, yeah where theres a will there is a way oh, whoa where theres a will there is a way making my way toward my redemption this prison is of my own invention, yeah what will it take to capture my attention . Love will help part the sea dark sea thats inside of me that holds these invisible chains invisible chains where theres a will there is a way to break these invisible chains where theres a will there is a way, mmhmm where theres a will there is a way to break these invisible chains where theres a will there is a way to break these invisible chains [applause] capehart please welcome to the stage the honorable eric holder. [applause] ive covered you for many years. Ive gotten to know you, but tonight provides a unique opportunity for us to get to know who eric holder really is. Like so many americans, your familys story is an immigrants story. Uh, both of your parents came from barbados. Youre youre double bajan. Lets take a look. William my father is, um, born in barbados, came to america through ellis island when he was 12 years old. My mother was born, um, in atlantic city, new jersey. Um, she was born of bajan parents, as well. Malone eric grew up as the older of two sons. His mother was a wonderful woman, and she doted upon her son. William we were raised by, um, two parents who were very much aware of what was going on in america at the time, very much connected to the movement inin terms of thinking and teaching us of how to interpret it and where we should stand. Malone i think that was one of the things that motivated erics father so much, you know, to work hard and to make sure that his sons didnt have that sort of uncertain existence. William my father and mother would read the newspaper every day, and my brother picked up on that, and so he would start the newspaper at the back. He would start on the sports pages and read it forward and then read it backwards. He was chosen in fourth grade to go to a Junior High School outside of our neighborhood in the gifted childrens program, so at Junior High School, um, he wound up being elected the student president , um, first black one at that school. Obviously, it was a big event in our house to have him go to college, do as well as he did. Bollinger ii dont know anybody, uh, who is an alum of columbia who loves the institution more than eric. Foner eric holder talked about when he was a student, he took my course on the civil war reconstruction period. That class, uh, really emphasized the importance of slavery in shaping American Development and bringing about the civil war. He really learned a lot about what he knows about the history of race. Malone in a lot of ways, i think, he was, uh, shaped by, you know, what was going on at the time with, uh, the vietnam war, the protests, the burnings, you know, thethethe student takeovers. Must go. Jim crow must go. Jim crow must go. Jim crow must go. Malone eric sort of saw the injustice in the world, you know, and i think that that was ultimately what sort of led him to law school. He tried to figure out whether or not you know, how are you going to be able to change the system. Are you gonna change it from within . Are you gonna change it from without or some combination thereof, and i think that eric probably saw the law as the best avenue for being able to effect change. [applause] capehart so you emulated your father reading the newspaper backwards and forwards. Tell us more aboutabout your parents. Holder my father was raised by his mom. Uh, his father abandoned him, and i think he was determined to make sure that his sons never felt that sense of uncertainty thatthat he felt in his life. He didnt graduate from high school, and yet hehes, i think, the wisest man iveive ever known. My mom was a traditional, you know, mother who was always there for her sons, constantly pushing us to make sure that, withwith regard toto educational achievement, that that was something that we focused on because that was gonna be the key toto success. Capehart why dont you tell everybody what was extraordinary about your father joining the army . Holder he was too old to be drafted orso he decided to enlist, and he capehart he was almost 40. Holder yeah. Yeah. He, uh, was a master sergeant, and while in uniform, he was discriminated against, both in North Carolina and oklahoma. In oklahoma, he was told he couldnt get a sandwich at a lunch place, had to walk around to the back, which was new to himcoming from the west indies, having lived in new yorkand yet that never shook hishis faith in this country. As an immigrant, heuh, the immigrant love for the new country was something that he always had and that whole generation that put up with so much so that people like me would have the opportunities that i had. Capehart and did i read this right . It was yourit was your grandmother in atlantic city. Uh, she was politically active in that she helped toor was part of demonstrations to integrate the woolworth lunch counters in atlantic city. Holder oh, yeah. She was a firecracker. She was from barbados, and one time, we picked up the new york times, and i said, hey, that looks like grammy, and there she was holding up a sign protesting to desegregate the lunch counters inat woolworths in atlantic city, new jersey, and so people have to remember that, you know, this whole question of segregation, discrimination was not only confined to the south. Capehart so from the fourth grade on, you, like so many, um, who went through integration and so many like me who are children of theof the civil rights movement, you had to live in two worlds. You had to become bicultural. What was that like . Talk about that. Holder yeah. I did lead that dual existence. I mean, ii was certainly still aa kid grounded in east elmhursta lowerclass, predominantly lowermiddleclass, predominantly black neighborhoodand then i was in another part ofof queens where i went to school that was overwhelmingly jewish and a little morelittle more upscale, and i had my feet in in both worlds, which, i think, in some ways was and adadvantageous to me because it equipped me for the world that i was gonna have to deal with, uh, as an adult, never wanted to lose mymy roots, you know, andandand mymy sense of myself as primarily a black man, but at the same time, i wanted to be able to figure out how to negotiate, you know, the majority society. Capehart andand you didnt lose your roots becauseeven though you were going to a predominantly white, predominantly Jewish School you socialized at home. Most of your friends werewere from the caribbean. Holder yeah, yeah. Capehart is that right . Holder yeah, a lot of people from the caribbean, a few, um, who had parents from the south, but, uh, you know, my ability to dance, my ability to, uh, you knowand i can dance uh, my abil capehart iiive seen it. Yes. He can. Holder my ability to focus on the appropriate music. You know, beatles were cool, but i was with the temptations, the supremes, you know, parliamentfunkadelic. That was east elmhurst, you know . Thats where i was. Capehart uh, and you also went to stuyvesant. Holder mmhmm. Capehart which is still to this day one of the most exclusive schools in the country, in new york city. You got some incredible score. Whatwhat was it . Holder 260 out of, like, 300. You get 300 questions, and i think i got about. Capehart thats right. Holder 260something or other of them right, you know . Capehart and so you wanted to go to ucla. Holder i wanted to go to ucla. Kareem was there, you know . Um, he washe has been my idol for as long as, i think, ive been alive. I followed him in high school and college, and i figured, you know, um, i wanted to be out there with the man and got into ucla, but they didnt give me nearly as much money asas columbia did, and so i decided to stay in, uhin new york, and i remember when my father said, now, you got to think about this, son. Where would you be ratherwhere would you rather spend you time in college, in providence, rhode island, or new york city . [laughter] and i thought about that for about a nanosecond and said, im going to columbia. Capehart now, one of the professors youyou had is, uh, eric foner, one of the nations most preeminent slave historians. What impact did he have on you . Holder well, he, at the time, was talking about things that are more commonly accepted now. He talked about the impact of slavery on this country in terms of the economic base that it created for this nation and how the north was dependent on slavery and how the development of the United States was dependent on the maintenance of the slavery system inin the south, and these are things that we had never heard ofof before. I think he was probably a minority voice at the time, but all those who have really studied the issue at this point really acknowledge that but for slavery, this nation would not have become the nation that it became. Certainly, it was you know, if you look at slavery population, that was the single most valuable asset in the United States at the time. Im not, obviously, saying that it was a good thing, but in pure economic terms, that is thats true. Capehart in your senior year, you decide to apply to law school. Holder yeah. Capehart now, did you really want to go to law school, or were you trying to delay the inevitable . Holder no. Ii describe law school at that time as the haven for the undecided. Um, i came out of, uh, college with a degree in American History, and i was thinking, all right. Now what do i do here . And people told me, there are so many things that you can do with a legal degree, and i said, all right. That sounds good. Ill go there and find out what i can do with awith this degree inin the law, but in first year, um, i had criminal law taught by, uh, telford taylor, who was a former nuremberg prosecutor, and something clicked. Um, you know, the notion of dealing with, uh, criminal law and being a litigator, it was, i guess, after my first year, towards the end of my first year, i decided, you know what . I think i really want to be a lawyer. Thats what i want to do with, uhwith a legal degree. Capehart and then you also liked constitutional law. Holder yep. Constitutional law iswas probably my favorite subject in law school because you really understandyou get a sense of the history, uh, of the United States by the study of constitutional law and especially the way in which the Supreme Court got it right sometimes, got it wrong too often, and, um, through the study of the legal system and decisions made by various judges and particularly the Supreme Court, uh, you got a better understanding of, uh, how we got to be the country that we are. Capehart and you had some great clerkships during that time. Holder that i did. I, um, clerked after my second year uh, after my first year, actuallywith the naacp Legal Defense fund, and after my second year, i came down to washington, dc, and i was, uh, a clerk here at the Justice Department in thein the Criminal Division. Capehart its interesting to see your life in hindsight because those clerkships literally set the stage for your career and life in dc from the department of justice to become Dc Superior Court judge and beyond. Lets take a look. Malone when eric was judge, one of the things that i think permeated his tenure was this concept of fairness. Everybody really liked eric and had a lot of respect for him, and i used to always thinki was like, how can prosecutors and Defense Attorneys like you . You know, but you learn that fairness isnt a zerosum game. Yates i remember him talking about his experience when he was a superior court judge here in the district of columbia, and he was required because of the minimum mandatory sentencing in place to sentence so many young, African American men to literally decades in prison for drug crimes, and he saw the impact that that had not only on them, but on their families and on their communities. Wilkinson the, uh, crack epidemic had hit the district of columbia, and, um, he cared, obviously, very much about, uh, the Public Safety of the citizens of the district of columbia. There were conditions that were breeding crime, andand he realized that just locking defendants up, um, without, uh, appropriate treatment programs and chances for rehabilitation, uh, perhaps was not the answer. William i remember a particular case. It was a 12yearold who was in Gang Activity and had shot and killed another very young personi think it might have been another 12yearold and that case really, really moved him. Norton i chose, uh, eric holder because of his very distinguished career in the Justice Department with the Public Integrity section and his career as a superior court judge, the trial court judge, uh, here in the district of columbia. He seemed to understand that this local responsibility, uhwhich, by the way, is the predominant responsibility for the u. S. Attorney for the district of columbiawas something he had to rethink and make sure fit. Wilkinson he really, um, i think, transformed the way thatthat that office, uh, conducted business prior to mr. Holder becoming u. S. Attorney. The office seemed somewhat detached from the community. Reno in the course of these oversight functions and committees, we have debated and disagreed, sometimes fiercely, on a number of issues, and today, obviously, is no exception. Henderson the appointment of janet reno as the attorney general was a sign of hopefulness. Eric holder was her deputy ag and took responsibility for initially handling her criminal justice portfolio. Holder i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today, uh, on the important and troubling issue of hate crimes. Uh, as you know. Henderson we, among other things, tried to advance, uh, the passage of the hate crimes prevention act, now known as the Matthew Shepard james byrd hate Crime Prevention statute, uh, and so, uh, we were able to work with eric holder, uh, to work with janet reno, uh, to try to advance those concerns, and for that reason, i think he, uh, deserves to be recognized as one of our greatest public servants. [applause] capehart one of our greatest public servants. The man who said that, wade henderson, is here in the audience, and public life has been your calling, and now, you started with the department of justice in the Public Integrity section. Holder the Public Integrity section is the part of the Criminal Division that prosecutes, um, official corruption cases, and so i had the opportunity to try cases all over the country, i guess as far west as guam and as far east as, i guess, philadelphia, boston, never tried a case, though, in washington, dc, interestingly enough. Capehart and then the Public Integrity section was that section that was the creation as a result of watergate. Holder yeah. It was created after watergate because the department of justice at that time did not have a mechanism within headquarters to deal with, uh, public corruption cases, and, uh, thenhead of the Criminal Division richard thornburgh, who later became attorney general, decided that there was a need for that, so i was the first honors grad to be a part of, uhof the Public Integrity section. Capehart andand did you like that work . At the time, did you think that thats the work you wanted to be doing . Holder oh, i loved it. My plan was to comei took the new york bar because i was going back to new york, which was the center of the universe, and i was gonna stay here for about two oror or 3 years. I ended up spending 12 years at theat the Public Integrity section, and ive never leftuh, never left dc. Capehart now, so after working at the Justice Department, as you said, for more than 12 years, you were then appointed by president reagan to be dcs superior court judge, but you found that work to be, uh, interesting, to say the least, because of what was happening in washington at the time. Talk about what it was like, one, being a judge, so how old were you . Youyou were. Holder 37. Capehart so young but also at a time in washington that was difficult, to say the least. Holder it was a time when dc was in the throes of the crack wars. Um, people tend to forget that at that time, washington was considered the murder capital of the country. We had the highest percapita, um, murder rate, and i had coming before me on aon a daily basis, um, these just waves and waves of young, black men who i had to sendsend to prison, and it was something that just wore me down over the course of the 5 years that i wasi was a judge, and so i, uh, ultimately decided to, uhto leave the bench. Capehart now, was it Thurgood Marshall who said that the Dc Superior Court was one of the most powerful places you could be . Because its washington, dc, you have, uh, jurisdiction over local things but also federal matters. Hold