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ICYMI: Eric Holder Urges Renewed Engagement to Defend Democracy While Accepting NAN’s Lifetime of Excellence in Public Service Award

Washington, D.C. — This week, Eric H. Holder, Jr., the 82nd Attorney General of the United States and Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC), received the Lifetime of Excellence in Public Service Award at the National Action Network’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Day Breakfast.

Following his acceptance of the award, Attorney General Holder used his remarks to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy and urge the public to recommit to defending our democracy amid increasing efforts to undermine civil rights and voting rights in America.

The full speech, as prepared for delivery, is below: 

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.

82nd Attorney General of the United States

Accepting the Lifetime of Excellence in Public Service Award

Remarks As Prepared For Delivery

January 19, 2025

I want to thank both Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King for your leadership in bringing us all together this morning.  

Your father would have turned—I guess I’m not good at math but 97 years old?—this week.  And I cannot help but wonder how this country might be different if he had not been robbed of decades of his leadership, and even greater amounts of wisdom he might have offered us over these lost years—his lost years.

And I also want to thank my friend and fellow New Yorker, Reverend Al Sharpton and the National Action Network for this award.  It is humbling to accept it while we are gathered here to celebrate the life and the enduring legacy of one of my idols.

Today, we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and reflect on his legacy of principled and powerful resistance. The man who ripped down a system of American apartheid. I am also reflecting today on Dr. King’s abilities to speak plainly about injustice and who fearlessly confronted the forces that stood in the way of freedom—while never losing his belief in the American people’s ability to walk together toward the Promised Land 

Our current moment demands such clarity as well as such fearlessness. 

The forces reshaping our country are testing not only our institutions, but our collective and individual capacity to defend the ideals of this nation. And these actions require from all of us—from all of us—a clarity of purpose that is equal to the rising stakes.

We are seeing a sustained effort to eradicate the Voting Rights Act. That is the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement and an essential part of Dr. King’s legacy. 

We are witnessing the weaponization of the Department of Justice by the president and his lackeys to silence his critics and to intimidate voters. 

We’re observing Gestapo tactics by federal immigration law enforcement in Minnesota as well as around the country. You all remember the name Renee Good. And you say her name. You say her name.

We’re experiencing unprecedented mid-decade gerrymandering attempts designed to disproportionately disenfranchise Black and Brown voters as the president desperately clings to power like an insecure dictator. 

There is a concerted effort underway to resegregate America.

But as dark as things may seem now, we must remember that every generation has been similarly tested. And each time, Americans faced, really, a critical question: Do we sit back and hope that help comes along, or do we stand together and fight for what we believe in?

I know the scale of what we’re up against can seem overwhelming. State-sponsored attempts at oppression always appear that way.  Think about Jim Clark. Think about Bull Connor. Think about Ross Barnett. Think about George Wallace.

State attempts at oppression always appear overwhelming. And it’s only human to hope for someone else to step in. To pray for a miracle or to pray for a savior. To look to the horizon, hoping to see the cavalry coming to the rescue.

But here’s the hard truth: There are no reinforcements on the way. There’s no “miraculous rescue” that is coming.

We are the cavalry. 

And Dr. King understood this acutely. Listen to his words: “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Even a casual look at history reveals that no social advance rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”

Dedicated individuals like you—like each of us—have always carried this work forward. 

Democracy does not defend itself. As John Lewis told us in his last public statement, “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.”  From the fights for due process and equal treatment to the struggles for access to the ballot, it’s been everyday Americans who ultimately have bent that arc of the moral universe towards justice. 

Now, we owe a profound debt to Dr. King and the generations who sacrificed so much to secure these rights, and I hope you’ll join me in spending some time reflecting on that sacrifice today. 

But tomorrow, I hope you’ll continue to honor them by picking up the torch they passed to all of us—by doing the work we must do and carrying forward with the march they never had the chance to finish. Because we owe a similar debt to generations yet to come. We can only truly honor our black heroes and heroines of the past by ensuring that those who come after us will inherit an America truer to its promise as well as to its founding ideals.

So don’t be overwhelmed. Do not feel fatigued. I don’t want anybody saying that they’re tired. Do not capitulate or collaborate. Always remember: Dr. King’s words and most importantly, his actions, make clear one most important thing: We have within our grasp the ability to win this struggle for the soul of our nation. 

We have that capacity. We have that ability. We can win. And we must do so.

Thank you again so much for this treasured recognition.  

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