Eric H. Holder Parents: Meet Eric Himpton Holder Sr and Miriam Holder

Eric Himpton Holder Jr. is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African American to hold the position of U.S. attorney general.

Eric H. Holder Parents: Meet Eric Hampton Holder Sr and Miriam Holder

Eric Hampton Holder was born on January 21, 1951, in the Bronx, New York. His mother was a telephone operator and secretary and his father was in the real estate industry. In 1969, Holder earned his high school diploma and a Regents Scholarship from Stuyvesant High School.

Holder received his B.A. degree in American history in 1973 from Columbia University where he became active in civil rights. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1976. While a law student, he clerked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division in 1974 and 1975, respectively.

The Department of Justice clerkship led to his first job after law school, when he worked as part of the attorney general’s honors program in 1976.