Statement from Attorney General Eric Holder on the Passing of Dr. Benjamin Hooks

"Today, we mourn the loss of Dr. Benjamin Hooks, one of our nation’s great civil rights leaders. Dr. Hooks served our country in many ways – as a pastor, a judge, a lawyer, an activist, a businessman and a veteran. During WWII, Staff Sergeant Hooks battled oppression overseas. He then returned home to fight for the cause of equal justice and the struggle for equal opportunity. Dr. Hooks’s extraordinary efforts in support of civil rights helped to open the doors of opportunity to the many who have followed in his footsteps, and his visionary leadership helped to steer the NAACP through one of its most challenging eras. Throughout his life, Dr. Hooks always, as he put it in his 1992 farewell address, ‘fought the good fight’ and ‘kept the faith.’

As we remember and honor his many achievements and contributions, our thoughts and prayers are with the Hooks family. Although Dr. Hooks will be sorely missed, there is much to celebrate in the life he lived, in the example he set and in the inspiration his memory will continue to provide our nation."