Attorney General Eric Holder has begun drafting plans to continue his work rebuilding the relationship between local law enforcement and the black community after he leaves public office next year.
This whole notion of reconciliation between law enforcement and communities of color is something that I really want to focus on and to do so in a very organized way, he said Tuesday in an interview with TIME. Not just as Eric Holder, out there giving speechesthough certainly that could be a part of itbut to have maybe a place where this kind of effort is housed and to be associated with that kind of an entity.
His preparation comes at a time when the nations top law enforcement officer has launched a national tour to meet with black leaders and law enforcement around the country, amid daily protests over grand jury decisions in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., to not bring charges against police officers who killed unarmed black men. On Monday, Holder spoke at Atlantas Ebenezer Baptist Church, a civil rights landmark, and on Thursday he will travel to Cleveland, where a police officer recently shot a 12-year-old black boy, Tamir Rice, who was playing with an air gun.
Holders current plans include creating an institute of justice that would help continue the dialogue he hopes to undertake over the coming weeks. Holder has been the administrations point-person on Ferguson response since he visited the troubled city in August following the shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.
Holder, who will leave office as soon as his replacement is confirmed, said he believes Ferguson could be a seminal moment for the national conversation about race.
Below is a lightly edited transcript of his Tuesday interview with TIME.
TIME: You said you were encouraged by the peaceful demonstrations after the Ferguson grand jury announcement and you praised the young people who interrupted you on Monday. What do you see in them?
Eric Holder: I think that these protests, if done correctly, can lead to positive change. And I draw distinction between those who protest peacefully in the great tradition of Rosa Parks, for instance.
Its interesting that I spoke yesterday at the church where Martin Luther King gave some of his famous speeches on the 59th anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to get up and surrender her seat. And I think if you think about them, that is Rosa Parks, and if you think about Dr. King, and the lasting permanent changes that the movements that they helped to inspire, that he helped to lead, that I think is a guide to the protestors now. I think that protesters, people who feel strongly about the nature of the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color, that if that intensity of feeling is channeled appropriately, then positive change can come.
But it means people have to stay involved. They have to be committed to the cause, they have to organize, they have to do all the things that Rev. [C.T.] Vivian talked about last night in his remarks, that history has shown us produce things that are more than protests: things that morph from protest into a movement.
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Attorney General Eric Holder Plans Institute of Justice to Address Protest Concerns