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Washington (CNN) -- Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that he will resign after six years at the helm of the Justice Department.

Holder has agreed to remain in his post until the confirmation of his successor.

"In the months ahead I will leave the Department of Justice," Holder said at the White House, thanking President Barack Obama for the "greatest honor of my professional life."

Though he's stepping down, Holder said that "he will never leave the work."

"I will continue to serve and try to find ways to make our nation even more true to its founding ideals," he said, without offering any specifics.

Obama stood next to Holder in the White House State Dining Room, praising the first African-American to serve as attorney general and who made civil rights and equal rights central components to his tenure at Justice.

The President noted that his department prosecuted hundreds of terror cases, "rooted out corruption and fought violent crime," tackled financial fraud and "attacks on the Voting Rights Act." Obama said Holder also helped to bring down the crime rate and incarceration rate by 10% over the last six years.

"Eric has done a superb job," Obama said. "I just want to say thank you."

In a telephone interview with CNN's Evan Perez before the official announcement, Holder said he never intended to stay for the duration of Obama's second term. He said now was the appropriate time to step down -- a time when things are going smoothly at the department.

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Holder to resign after successor is confirmed