Former U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said he wishes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were alive to see that the system of American apartheid he fought against has been legally dismantled.
“Legally,” he repeated, making it clear that there is much still to be done today.
He also wishes that Rev. King, who blazed a trail in his 39 years as a civil rights leader, could see how women, LGBTQ people, people of color, young people victimized by gun violence and others are demanding justice and peacefully marching for fairness.
“We are still marching,” Holder said at the University of Chicago’s commemoration celebration for King, held at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on Jan. 23. “We are still striving. We’re still calling on our nation’s leaders to act with a sense of justice, compassion and common humanity.”
The long struggle to overcome injustice and disparities continues. “The age of bullies and bigots is not fully behind us,” he said. The legacy of intolerance of ardent segregationists like Bull Connor and others endures, he said.