10 Things You Didn’t Know About Eric Holder
Holder is reportedly being vetted to be President-elect Obama's attorney general
Clarification: Eric Holder graduated from Columbia College, which is part of Columbia University.
1. Eric Holder's father emigrated from Barbados when he was about 12, ending up in Queens, N.Y., where Eric Jr. was born and raised. Eric Sr. joined the Army during World War II and later became a real estate broker.
2. The young Eric Holder attended the highly regarded Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, where he played basketball and earned a Regents scholarship.
3. He has always had a love for basketball and fantasized about becoming a professional player like Washington Bullets star Jeff Malone, who is his wife's nephew.
4. Holder graduated in 1973 from Columbia College, majoring in American history. He was immediately accepted into Columbia Law School, where he graduated in 1976.
5. While attending Columbia, Holder spent time in his Harlem neighborhood helping kids at the youth center. He joined the Concerned Black Men, beginning his lifelong role mentoring youth.
6. After graduating from law school, Holder got a job at the Justice Department, where he joined the Public Integrity Unit. One of the high-profile cases Holder helped prosecute was the "Abscam" corruption case involving then South Carolina Rep. John Jenrette.
7. In 1989, Holder met his wife to be, Sharon Malone, at a fundraiser for Concerned Black Men and the Coalition of 100 Black Women. She is an obstetrician-gynecologist and a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Medical School. They have three children.
8. While in private practice as an attorney at Covington & Burling, Holder represented the National Football League in its investigation of dog-fighting charges against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.
9. Legal Times chose him as one of the "Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Past 30 Years."
10. In 1997, Eric Holder became the highest-ranking black American law enforcement official in U.S. history when he was confirmed as deputy attorney general to Janet Reno in 1997. Previously, he was the first black ever to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. If nominated and confirmed, he would be the first black U.S. attorney general.
Sources:
- Covington & Burling profile
- Columbia University
- Washington Post 12/21/1996
- Washingtonian October 2005
Reader Comments
Really?
He's Black?
Eric Holder is a racial-minority individual
Speaking of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder:
Eric Holder is a racial-minority individual, and in his heart and mind he inevitably does not endorse hate crimes committed by George W. Bush.
George W. Bush committed hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism (indicated in my blog).
George W. Bush did in fact commit innumerable hate crimes.
And I do solemnly swear by Almighty God that George W. Bush committed other hate crimes of epic proportions and with the stench of terrorism which I am not at liberty to mention.
Many people know what Bush did.
And many people will know what Bush did—even to the end of the world.
Bush was absolute evil.
Bush is now like a fugitive from justice.
Bush is a psychological prisoner.
Bush has a lot to worry about.
Bush can technically be prosecuted for hate crimes at any time.
In any case, Bush will go down in history in infamy.
Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang
B.S., Summa Cum Laude, 1996
Messiah College, Grantham, PA
Lower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993
“GEORGE W. BUSH IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY” BLOG OF ANDREW YU-JEN WANG
______________________
I am not sure where I had read it before, but anyway, it is a linguistically excellent statement, and it goes kind of like this: “If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Oh wait—off the top of my head—I think the quotation came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
"Black" men and "Black" women
The man who says he wants to fight "racism" met his wife to be at a fundraiser for Concerned "Black" Men and the Coalition of 100 "Black" Women. If as a nation and as a people we are going to eliminate racism we are going to have to eliminate "black" "white" "hispanic" etc from our everyday lives and our descriptions of each other. We certainly don't need to be joining "Black" organizations or "White" organizations. We need to be joing "People" organizations and working together for a better world. Peace.
advertisement
