Eric Holder began his career of public service by joining the Department of Justice as part of the Attorney General's Honors Program. He was assigned to the newly formed Public Integrity Section in 1976 and was tasked to investigate and prosecute official corruption on the local, state and federal levels. In 1988, Deputy Attorney General Holder was nominated by the President to become an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

In 1993, President Clinton nominated Mr. Holder to become the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Mr. Holder was confirmed in October of that year and served as the head of the largest U.S. Attorney's Office in the nation for nearly four years. As U.S. Attorney, Mr. Holder created a new Domestic Violence Unit, implemented a community prosecution pilot project to work hand-in-hand with residents and local government agencies in order to make neighborhoods safer, supported a renewed enforcement emphasis on hate crimes so that criminal acts of intolerance will be severely punished, developed a comprehensive strategy to improve the manner in which agencies handle cases involving the abuse of children, launched a new community outreach program to reconnect the U.S. Attorney's Office with the citizens it serves, and developed "Operation Ceasefire," an initiative designed to reduce violent crime by getting guns out of the hands of criminals.

On April 14, 1997, President Clinton nominated Mr. Holder to be the Deputy Attorney General. As Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Holder is responsible for the supervision of the day-to-day operation of the Department of Justice. He is now the highest ranking African American in law enforcement in the history of the United States. Deputy Attorney General Holder is active in the organization Concerned Black Men, which seeks to help the youth of the District of Columbia with the problems they face.