Eric Holder's Schedule: Frequent Meetings With Race-Based Groups

Attorney General Eric Holder began his tenure by calling Americans cowards regarding racial issues. Newly released documents reveal that Holder’s schedule shows a preoccupation with racial issues: he spends an inordinate amount of time meeting with race-centered organizations.

Recently, the Department of Justice began making Holder’s daily schedules available online. Although the schedules are far from complete and heavily redacted, the compiled summary below (links to documents provided) shows how much time and access the office of the attorney general allocates to ethnocentric lobbyists and race-based associations.

For 2009, Holder’s first year as AG, over just a nine-month period (the only months available for that year) nearly 50 entries mention meetings with such groups. For the entire 17-month period provided, there are almost a dozen entries showing meetings with “black” professional associations and trade groups.

To be sure, people are free to associate and assemble along ethnic lines. But when the attorney general uses his executive branch position (and taxpayer funding) to advance the private concerns of race-centric organizations, it goes far in creating the appearance of racial bias within the DOJ. (Unfortunately, bias in access doesn’t begin and end at the DOJ; see a recent post at the Center for Immigration Studies about similar findings involving the DHS.) Given what we know of the DOJ’s ideological politics — as has been documented by PJ Media Legal Editor J. Christian Adams and most recently by the agency’s own internal watchdog — seeing whom Holder is giving access to raises serious questions about our nation’s primary law enforcer’s commitment to race-neutral enforcement. This is especially a concern given the Holder-led DOJ’s intrusions into employment law, voting law, discrimination law, and onto college campuses.

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The following months are missing from DOJ’s released library of Holder’s schedule:

2009 January, April, December
2010 January — March; May — December
2011 July — December

February 2009

Meeting with “John Payton of the Legal Defense Fund” (NAACP) (page 5)
Ebony magazine shoot (page 22)
Meeting with ACLU president (page 37)

March 2009

Selma-to-Montgomery march commemoration (page 13)
Civil Rights Summit — AG’s Conference Room (page 16)
- Attendees: NAACP LFD, Asian American Justice Center, ACLU, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, MALDEF, Ben Jealous, Hilary Shelton NAACP
Meeting with L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa (illegal immigrant advocate) (page 20)
National Conference of Black Mayors (page 32)
Meeting with National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (page 35)
National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Awards Dinner (page 36)
Meeting with BET founder Russell Simmons (page 49)

May 2009

Hispanic Caucus Meeting (page 5)
NAACP LDF Lunch (page 21)
Meeting with Ricki Seidman (page 34)
- ED of “Rock The Vote”/Advised Anita Hill/Ran Clinton’s ’92 campaign/Advised Obama admin. re Sotomayor’s nomination.

June 2009

Essence magazine interview (page 4)
Meeting with president, Feminist Majority Foundation (page 18)
Lance Withers Slaughter, black financial consultant at Merrill Lynch (page 35)
Meeting to discuss NAACP Centennial Event remarks (page 40)

July 2009

Meeting with Association of Native American Trial Lawyers (page 7)
Meeting with DOJ Association of Black Attorneys (page 8)
WH Office of Urban Affairs (page 16)
NAACP Centennial Convention: New York — keynote speech (page 18)
NAACP documentary filming — Meeting with NAACP Hollywood Bureau ED (page 21)
Meeting with Mayor Villaraigosa in L.A. (page 26)
Muslim community event at Omar Ibn Al-Khattahb Foundation in L.A. (page 26)
National Black Prosecutors Association Profiles in Courage Luncheon keynote speech (page 42)
Taping remarks for Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community Conference (page 56)
Meeting with Alvin Sykes, chairman of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign

August 2009

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (page 34)
16th St. Baptist Church (page 34)

September 2009

Keynote remarks at Hispanic National Bar Association (Albuquerque) (page 5)
Remarks at Latina Lawyers luncheon (page 9)
Call with DeMaurice “De” Smith, NFL Players Association ED (page 17)
Phone call with Lance Withers Slaughter (page 30)
Meeting with The Feminist Majority, NAF, and Planned Parenthood (page 31)
Welcome remarks at DOJ 2009 National Hispanic Heritage Month Commemorative Program (page 43)
- Program theme: “Embracing the Fierce Urgency of Now!”’
Meeting with National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) (page 43)
Meeting to discuss Anti-Defamation League speech (page 44)
Remarks at National Bar Association’s Congressional Black Caucus reception (page 45)
Honoree at National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education Awards reception (page 47)

October 2009

Award from Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (page 2)
Meeting with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) national board of directors
ADL VIP reception (page 41)
Remarks at NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet (page 41)
Remarks at ADL’s 2009 American Heritage Dinner (page 41)

November 2009

Brennan Center for Justice Legacy Awards Dinner (page 52)
Meeting to discuss “Diversity Plan” (page 73)

March 15 – April 30 2010

National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters Annual Communications Awards Dinner (page 11)
Comprehensive immigration reform — Other agency secretaries in attendance (page 31)
Meeting to discuss Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) speech (page 43)
SNCC conference (page 51)

January 2011

Remarks: Martin Luther King commemorative program/sharing platform with National Urban League CEO (page 15)
Remarks: EPA’s Martin Luther King event (page 25)
Remarks: Annual MLK Prayer Breakfast at Shiloh Baptist Church (page 27)
MLK commemoration (Atlanta) (page 29)
MLK worship service (page 30)
US Attorney’s Office Muslim/Arab outreach efforts (page 55 & 59)

February 2011

Meeting to discuss Black History Month speeches (page 28)
FBI’s Black History Month celebration program (page 35)
Remarks: SEC’s NY Regional Office — African American Heritage Month (page 36)
Remarks: Congressman Crowley — Black History event/NY (page 36)
Keynote speaker: NY City Police Dept. annual Black Heritage Celebration (includes “Negro National Anthem”) (page 66)

March 2011

Remarks: National African American History Month Observance Program (page 9)
Private event: National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters and the NABOB Telecommunications (page 9)
Remarks: Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association (MBLA) 2011 annual gala (presented with the MBLA Trailblazer Award) (page 16)
Meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton (page 17)
Meet with MBLA board members (page 22)

April 2011

Al Sharpton’s National Action Network’s annual convention (New York) (page 8)

May 2011

Meeting with Carie Lemack, director of the left-wing Bipartisan Policy Center (page 7)
Address: 57th anniversary commemoration of Brown v. Board (Topeka, Kansas) (page 53)
Remarks: 2011 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month commemorative program (page 79)

June 2011