Much like Obama in 2007, Eric Holder’s appearance at Brown Chapel AME Church Sunday was part remembrance, part present-day politics.

Holder Vows to Restore DOJ Civil Rights

SELMA (By Jonathan Martin, Politico)  March 10, 2009 — Barack Obama went to Selma, Ala., two years ago to claim a place in the lineage of civil rights pioneers.

His African-American attorney general returned to mark “Bloody Sunday” again — this time, with a pledge to restore the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and end “the scourge of racial profiling.”

Holder was there to commemorate the day in 1965 when Alabama state troopers beat a group of civil rights marchers, but he also spoke to those in the church of racial struggles today, with a pledge that Obama would help protect the gains won by their predecessors.

The attorney general did not reprise his view that America is “a nation of cowards” for not being more willing to discuss race. But Holder confronted in plain terms two issues critical to the black community — issues that many blacks widely believe the Bush administration ignored.

“Under my leadership, the Civil Rights Division will fight discrimination and inequality just as fiercely as the Criminal Division fights crime,” Holder promised in the sanctuary that often served as a local headquarters for civil rights activists in the ’60s. “Under my leadership, in all that it does, the Civil Rights Division will reflect the spirit of the movement that inspired its creation.”

Speaking about law enforcement — seen by some blacks as more foe than friend — Holder said he would strive for the police to “salute the residents of every neighborhood and for every resident to salute them in return.”

“That will require the Justice Department to work hand in hand with police and communities to get neighborhoods engaged in promoting their own protection,” he said. “That won’t happen unless we relentlessly pursue an end to the scourge of racial profiling of African-Americans, Muslims and other Americans that alienates citizens from their own communities.”

Holder, the first African-American ever to serve as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, hinted at the once-unlikely prospect of a black attorney general standing near where white police officers clubbed young civil rights marchers.

“Few would have predicted, on that dark day 44 years ago, that a black man would become our nation’s 44th president,” Holder said.

But Holder’s comments came on the same day The New York Times quoted Obama saying he would have advised Holder against making the “cowards” comment. In Selma, the attorney general was more cautious and spoke in general terms about pushing the country toward a racial dialogue.

Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.), who is hoping to be elected Alabama’s first black governor next year, invited Holder to Selma this year, as he invited Obama in 2007. Davis said the attorney general’s original comments were aimed at highlighting the difficulty many in the nation have when the topic of race comes up.

“I think what the attorney general was pointing to was that race is an enormously difficult and contentious subject in American society,” Davis said in an interview with POLITICO. “We tend to avoid contentious subjects.”

Race and politics are always intertwined in the South, though. Davis, 41, reaffirmed as much by speaking of the significance of Selma — but quickly making clear that he does not see himself merely as a black leader, like those in an earlier generation of African-American politicians who had trouble attracting much support in the white community.

“I’m not running to be the next black political leader in Alabama,” he said. “I’m running to be governor of the state.”

Two years ago, Obama boldly offered himself as part of a "Joshua" generation in the civil-rights movement during what is known in Selma as the “Bridge Crossing Jubilee,” the annual event bringing civil rights veterans and politicians to the small town to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge, site of the violent clash.

His appearance came at a time when he was emerging as a real threat to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary and fighting to win support from the black community.

“I thank the Moses generation, but we’ve got to remember, now, that Joshua still had a job to do,” Obama said at the same church in which Holder spoke Sunday.

Politics aside, the day had special personal meaning for Holder.

His late sister-in-law, Vivian Malone-Jones, was one of the first black students to integrate the University of Alabama in 1963, two years before Bloody Sunday.

“My wife was very young then, but she remembers her brothers taking turns guarding the family’s front porch with a shotgun to protect their sister as she slept inside,” Holder recalled.

In a poignant moment, Holder was introduced at the church by Peggy Wallace Kennedy, the daughter of Gov. George Wallace, who stood in the schoolhouse door in Tuscaloosa. Wallace Kennedy was an outspoken supporter of Obama last year.

“Few would have believed that Gov. George Wallace would see the error of his ways, or that his daughter would so publicly — and so movingly — support President Obama’s candidacy,” Holder said.

Davis said the moment underlined the strides made since Bloody Sunday.

“Her standing on that platform and presenting him says volumes about America reconciling and our finding our way to a common identity,” he said.