The sudden but long expected resignation of Attorney General Eric Holder leaves many wondering what will happen to civil rights cases and investigations that began under his watch. Truth be told, Holder, the nation’s first Black Attorney General, has left an indelible mark on the conscience of the Department of Justice that would require whoever will succeed him to be measured by Holder’s standards, or at least the changes he initiated.
From the reduction of mandatory drug sentencing laws to vigorously investigating voting and civil rights violations and overbearing law enforcement, to defending the rights of gays and lesbians, Holder shaped American history in ways that few governments officials have done. That is why news of his resignation shocked civil and voting rights advocates in communities of color and others that have found themselves historically on the receiving end of unequal justice and political disenfranchisement.
Holder embodied the aspirations of everyone who was willing to confront the truth and admit, in his own words, that “we are a nation of cowards,” and work towards a more perfect union to avoid the incidents that gave rise to Ferguson. Holder was the Robert F. Kennedy of this dispensation and in many ways his position and the power and influence that comes with it were well understood in the corridors of power. He showed us what the Attorney General of the United States can do when the power of that office is being exercised for the right reasons. He made it clear numerous times in the midst of carefully orchestrated attacks against him, including being disrespected and publicly humiliated by his foes, sometimes in Congressional hearings, that he was still the Attorney General and he wouldn’t be cowed into submission but would fight to uphold the law.
Washington is in a media spin zone right now since Holder’s resignation was announced with speculations as to who will succeed the most notable, forceful and widely regarded Attorney General in recent history. President Obama, speaking from the White House last week, seemed to reluctantly accept Holder’s resignation, calling him a great friend. The president has not named a successor yet and Holder has indicated he will remain in the position until a successor is confirmed.
Obama need not go far to look for the next Attorney General to command the Department of Justice in Washington. He should look right here in Detroit and consider the current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Barbara L. McQuade, who rose to become the first woman to lead the federal prosecutor’s office in Detroit when Obama named her to the position in 2010.
At the time of her appointment, McQuade told the Michigan Daily, the student newspaper of the University of Michigan, her alma mater, that women becoming first in positions of influence should no longer be a new idea. She cited other legal trailblazers like Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who once served as Michigan Attorney General, as having paved the way for her to become the chief federal prosecutor in a district of six million.
“I have really ridden their coattails to some extent, and I think that it’s no longer a novelty (to be a female with a high position). People have an expectation that women can serve as effective prosecutors,” McQuade told the Michigan Daily.
Like Holder, McQuade has been front and center in civil rights. To her credit, she established the first Civil Rights Unit ever in the history of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit when she took over as the Justice Department’s special envoy to this area. That in itself showed the priority she gave to prosecuting civil rights cases.
Public servants are measured by the work they do, not how many press releases they send out to the media. Establishing a Civil Rights Unit shows the importance McQuade’s regime placed on civil rights as central to the tenets of democracy and what it means in a district that is rapidly becoming more diverse and multicultural.
Like Holder, McQuade has not been shy about taking part in events that often would be considered outside the realm of engagement for senior officials of the Justice Department.
For example, when Holder went to Ferguson to console angry residents of Ferguson’s Black community and mourners alike, weeping at the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed African American male gunned down by police weeks before he headed to college, critics of the Attorney General branded him as an activist and wondered why would he visit in the first place when investigations are ongoing in the case.
But Holder understood that he was not only a public servant accountable to the people, but that the weight of history was beckoning him to demonstrate that the department responsible for enforcing the nation’s laws is not out of touch with the people it is supposed to be serving.
In Detroit, McQuade has extended herself in similar fashion, like Holder attending key events that touch on the sensibilities of race and justice in the nation. For instance, she took part and spoke at the 50th Anniversary March on Woodward that commemorated the golden jubilee of the original March on Woodward where Dr. Martin Luther King spoke as a prelude to the March on Washington. That is unconventional for a chief federal prosecutor. But those who make an impact in any community are individuals who dared to be different, using sometimes unconventional means to achieve real change.
In an effort to foster trust with the law enforcement and ethnic communities, she’s been a catalyst in involving key Justice Department officials in Washington to speak to race and justice. For instance, I moderated a forum that her office cohosted discussing civil rights in a multicultural era. The speaker was Thomas Perez, the former Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, who is now the Secretary of Labor.
She also helped to convene the first of its kind — a panel on jury diversity with federal judges and top court officials discussing ways to make the federal juries more diverse. In any given encounter McQuade doesn’t appear to be a typical DOJ bureaucrat and doesn’t seem to cherish the trappings of officialdom. If you engage her on any level she is always concerned about how the DOJ is viewed in the community and the need to build a nexus that leads to trust between the department and the communities it is sworn to serve.
That is why you will see her attend a function of the NAACP, the Arab Civil Rights League and other organizations whose business it is to remind the nation of the importance of protecting civil and human rights. Besides civil rights, McQuade also has strong national security credentials prosecuting some of the biggest terrorism cases in Detroit as well as violent crime. In addition, she prosecuted one of the biggest corruption cases in history — the Kwame Kilpatrick saga.
The next Attorney General must be someone who can continue the legacy of Eric Holder.
The next Attorney General must be someone who has proven to be straighforward and courageous, not one to submit to political expediency.
The next Attorney General must be someone who is willing to openly discuss race, and use the moral force and authority of the DOJ to address inherent biases and discriminations that are often swept under the rug, yet have a debilitating impact on voting rights and police issues in communities of color, etc.
The next Attorney General must be a person who will defend the rights of gays and lesbians like Holder did, making it clear that in an evolving democratic experience called the United States, the rights of people of all stripes should be expanded, not limited. The first openly gay federal judge in the Eastern District, Judy Levy, came out of McQuade’s office where she was head of the Civil Rights Unit.
President Obama can bolster Detroit and Michigan in the national column if he names Barbara McQuade the next Attorney General.
Bankole Thompson is the editor of the Michigan Chronicle and author of a forthcoming book on Detroit. His most recent book, “Obama and Christian Loyalty,” deals with the politics of the religious right, Black theology and the president’s faith posture across a myriad of issues with an epilogue written by former White House spokesman Robert S. Weiner. He is a senior political analyst at WDET-101.9FM (Detroit Public Radio) and a member of the weekly “Obama Watch” Sunday roundtable on WLIB-1190AM New York. Email bthompson@michronicle.com or visit https://www.bankolethompson.com.
