Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke Delivers Remarks Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy and Farewell Remarks to the Justice Department

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you for that kind introduction.

It is a profound honor to be with you today reflecting on the enduring legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a great American whose vision, courage and commitment to justice transformed our nation's moral and social fabric. As we close today’s tribute to his life and the monumental contributions he made, we also celebrate our own hard work to advance his dream — a dream of a nation where equality, justice and fairness are not just aspirational ideals but tangible realities for all.

The Legacy and Propelling Fore of Dr. Martin Luther King

Dr. King was a visionary. He believed deeply in the promise of America, even as he recognized the profound inequities and systemic racism that plagued our society. He fought tirelessly for civil rights, practiced nonviolent resistance and embraced the inherent dignity of every human being. His leadership during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s ignited a fire that continues to burn in the hearts of those who seek justice and equality — in our hearts.

But as we have seen today, the work Dr. King began is far from done. When President Biden nominated me on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, and the Senate confirmed me for this role on the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death, our country was in the throes of unrest, with echoes of the nation’s earlier civil rights movement sounding in the streets. Black people had been tragically killed. Ahmaud Arbery died for the apparent offense of jogging while Black. Breonna Taylor died on the floor of her apartment, because of an illegitimate search warrant. George Floyd died with a police officer kneeling on his neck. And not just Black people felt the brunt of violence and prejudice. The previous year, COVID had unleashed hate-fueled violence targeting Asian Americans. Antisemitic and Islamophobic violence were also skyrocketing. The targeting of LGBTQI+ people, especially children, was rampant.

But the proliferation of violence and hate sparked a counter-reaction. Protesters, of all stripes, mounted more than 10,000 demonstrations. Yellow paint on the streets reminded people that “Black Lives Matter.” Activists toppled Confederate statues. Mississippi removed the confederate symbol from its flag. Corporations, states and localities designated Juneteenth a holiday. Washington’s football team shed its racist name and logo. And in a seemingly small move that actually matters, publications began to capitalize “Black” when using it to describe people. This change acknowledged the shared history, identity and community among people who identify as Black. It seemed to suggest understanding by institutions that previously privileged an archaic style rule over a minor edit that cost nothing. It hinted at respect and a willingness to confront a collective history of racism and injustice.

All welcome, overdue and symbolic steps. But none of them enough to realize Dr. King’s dream.

I stepped into this role, with great pride to return to the place where I started my career as a baby lawyer in 2000, but also with a sense of the urgency of the moment.

At the Civil Rights Division, we have long enforced federal laws that protect people from discrimination based on race, national origin, sex, disability, religion and military status. For 67 years, our explicit mission has been to give force and meaning to federal civil rights laws, to elevate them beyond mere words on paper, to integrate them into the reality of everyday life for all Americans, regardless of their background, zip code, or circumstances. We have sought to redeem the promises of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, Fair Housing Act of 1968 and other landmark legislation.

As we reflect on Dr. King’s legacy, I want to talk about how the Civil Rights Division has fulfilled this mission in the last four years. Under the leadership of President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, we have revitalized and empowered the division. We have expanded our scope of action to address both overt and covert barriers to civil rights. We have made progress that will be difficult to reverse and changes that are more than symbolic, more than mere gestures.

Promoting Constitutional Policing and Ensuring Accountability

George Floyd’s tragic killing ignited not just a wave of protest but a renewed national conversation about policing and the criminal justice system. Dr. King had earnestly hoped for such dialogue, but to see the persistence of police misconduct today would have made him heartsick. Dr. King peacefully submitted to arrest, a fact that critics of the Black Lives Matter Movement might have invoked as evidence that he was not critical of law enforcement. But King was critical. In his 1963 speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, he said, “We can never be satisfied as long as [Black Americans are] the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”

This is as true today as when he spoke those words, as true for white and brown victims as for Black ones, as true in the North as it is in the South.

In case after case, the Civil Rights Division has prosecuted police officers and officials in our jails and prisons who thought it was acceptable to brutalize people — disproportionately people of color — who didn’t show them the right level of respect, who did not comply with police orders quickly enough, or who ran away in fear. Through our prosecutions, we have shown that such impunity by law enforcement is not acceptable — that the job of police is to enforce the law and ensure public safety, not to adjudicate guilt and mete out punishment that could lead to loss of life.

We have also worked collaboratively with local law enforcement agencies to implement reforms. I have engaged with law enforcement groups across the country and participated in trainings. And we have also conducted pattern-or-practice investigations, yielding invaluable findings reports that lay bare for the public that police brutality persists. Decades after the sit-ins, the marches, and the letters from jail, we have uncovered and exposed systemic problems, and discriminatory policies and practices. Let me be clear — the vast majority of law enforcement officers work diligently to keep people safe, making personal sacrifices, putting their own lives on the line. But we also know that police officers need more resources, training and accountability to do their jobs properly.

Since 2021, we have negotiated and implemented consent decrees with cities such as Louisville and Minneapolis, where city leaders and the police departments all agree on, and stand with us in, the pursuit of reform. Our consent decrees address issues such as excessive use of force, biased policing and the failure to protect people’s civil rights. Our work has also yielded powerful success stories in places such as Seattle, Albuquerque, Newark and Baltimore, where we have worked hard to make real the goals of existing consent decrees — where policing has improved, violent crime has declined and constitutional policing policies are becoming rooted in the culture of the communities and their police departments. Our consent decrees require independent monitors and provide accountability both within police departments and with the community — creating long-lasting change that aligns with Dr. King’s vision of a just society. And we have been dynamic in our approach to this work, using tools such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, to address other complex issues that arise in the policing context.

Ensuring All Americans Have Voice in Our Democracy

Dr. King regarded the right to vote as paramount. He understood that the ballot made public officials accountable, that it made them responsive, that it made them listen to the voices of marginalized communities. “So long as I do not firmly and irrevocably possess the right to vote, I do not possess myself….I cannot make up my mind — it is made up for me. I cannot live as a democratic citizen, observing the laws I have helped to enact — I can only submit to the edict of others.”

The Civil Rights Division has carried forward Dr. King’s vision for voting rights by vigorously defending the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and fighting against voter suppression across the country.

In recent years, states have introduced restrictive voting laws that make it harder for historically disenfranchised communities to access the ballot. The division has sued to enjoin unconstitutional voter ID laws, pushed back against racially gerrymandered redistricting maps, worked to ensure language access for minority voters, stood up for members of the military participating from overseas, advocated for voters with disabilities and worked to address other tactics that, in the words of one court of appeals, “target[ed] African-Americans with almost surgical precision.”

The division has continued to push for restoration of the full protections of the Voting Rights Act, to undo the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder that eviscerated key provisions of the law and opened the floodgates of voter suppression. We have worked to make it clear that the right to vote is not an indulgence or reward bestowed by the state.

As we prepare to mark the 70th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, we must all continue push for something that should be beyond dispute — that we all deserve to have a voice in our democracy.

Pushing for Fair Housing and Economic Justice

Dr. King’s vision for justice also extended to economic equality, which included the right to fair housing. Discriminatory housing practices, redlining and segregation have historically kept people of color from achieving economic mobility and homeownership — the key to generational wealth in America. Dr. King’s work with the Poor People’s Campaign in the 1960s highlighted the intersections between race and economic injustice. Days following his assassination, Congress responded by adopting the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

We use this law and others, like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, to ensure fair housing opportunity for all. As part of our Combating Redlining Initiative, we have worked to hold banks and financial institutions accountable for modern-day lending. We have secured over $152 million in relief for affected communities, a number that leverages more than $1 billion in investment. We have sent a clear message: that everyone deserves access to the American Dream in our country. And the work that defined the latter days of Dr. King’s advocacy right before his assassination was not in vain.

Combating Hate-Fueled Violence and Protecting Vulnerable Communities

Dr. King’s dream of a beloved community was one where people of all races, backgrounds and faiths could live together in peace and mutual respect. Sadly, hate crimes and discrimination continue to tear at the fabric of our society. Our work to combat hate crimes and protect vulnerable communities from violence and discrimination is some of the work that I am most proud of.

Since 2021, we charged more than 150 defendants in more than 135 cases, achieving more than 125 convictions in that time frame. While true justice can’t be achieved, in the face of an increasing spate of bias-driven mass shootings, we work to provide hope for impacted communities. This work has been fueled by one simple principle — no one in America should be targeted because of the color of their skin, how they worship, where they are from or who they love.

This commitment aligns with Dr. King’s belief in the importance of empathy, compassion and a common responsibility for one another’s well-being.

This is just a small segment of our work these last four years, but the division has issued a 4-year report today outlining many more accomplishments that I encourage you to read.

Centering Victims and Survivors

As with all of our work, I believe deeply in centering the lived experiences of victims of discrimination, and survivors of violence. We do our very best work when we are on the ground and in community, gaining a firsthand perspective on the crisis, tragedy or problems at hand. For the last four years, we have traveled all across the country hearing from, standing with and listening to communities. From the Latino community still grieving in El Paso, Texas, from a xenophobic-fueled mass shooting that resulted in the deaths of 23 Latinos, to Tallulah, Louisiana — one of the poorest regions of the country in the Black Belt — to Little Rock, Arkansas where residents violently resisted the mandate of Brown vs. Board of Education, we have traveled across this great nation to ensure that marginalized communities are seen and heard.

The tears of grieving mothers who have lost their sons to police violence, the scars borne by the survivors of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh, the Tops Supermarket shooting in Buffalo, and the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, have demanded that we do our very best work — to tirelessly fight for justice and to do so with empathy and understanding. The angst of communities where justice has been denied for far too long has moved us to be bold and innovative in how we promote healing in communities like in Tulsa, where survivors and descendants are still reeling from the 1921 Race Massacre that killed hundreds of Black people and destroyed a thriving Black community. I held the hands of descendants of this tragedy this past Saturday. 103 years following this horrific chapter of American history, the community is still grieving and still healing. While no perpetrator is alive to be prosecuted today, we hope that the department’s report, the first time the federal government has provided a full account of this atrocity, will help with truth and reconciliation efforts, ensure that the nation never forgets this dark chapter of our history, and supports continued efforts to seek justice in the road ahead.

Meaningful Civil Rights Efforts Requires Partnership

We know that none of these accomplishments would be possible without the partnership of leaders and advocates like so many who have joined us today. I thank our speakers and my friends — President Marc Morial of the National Urban League, Attorney Ben Crump, Assistant Secretary Catherine Lhamon of the U.S. Department of Education, Director Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, President Derrick Johnson of the NAACP, Jill Jefferson of JULIAN, Executive Director Maya Berry of the Arab American Institute and President and CEO Maria Town of the American Association of People with Disabilities. Thanks to all of you for being such important partners and allies in work to make our nation more just and whole. I thank all of the U.S. Attorneys who have served with distinction under this administration, leaders across the Justice Department and our sister federal agencies for the work that we collectively do to carry forward Dr. King’s vision. I thank my kitchen table of tireless front office deputies and staff who burned midnight oil over these last few years, and whose good judgment and sound counsel ensured that we brought our A-game to all that we do. And a tremendous debt of gratitude to the career attorneys and professional staff of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the true backbone of this storied institution. It has been an honor to lead this extraordinary team. I stand here in awe of your talent, integrity and commitment to ensuring the rule of law. I know that you will preserve and protect the accomplishments and advancements of the last four years, as well as those that came before. You will hold Dr. King’s true north star as your own, using it to guide you toward greater progress and toward true equality under the law.

While challenges may lie ahead, we end 2024 in a better place than we started in 2021. As King noted, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” Let us today be hopeful, inspired, ready to continue the quest for justice in the road ahead.

Before I close, I want to say thank you — thank you to my family, my son Miles, my partner, my friends and loved ones who have traveled from far and near and all of you gathered here today. I am beyond grateful to each and every one of you. I thank you for your patience when I put this work ahead of you, and I thank you for being an endless fountain of inspiration and support.

You know — I stand here the proud daughter of Jamaican immigrants, reared in a public housing complex in Brooklyn, New York, motivated to do this work knowing what it’s like to experience poverty and racism and disadvantage; grateful for the rich opportunities that I was exposed to; and hell bent on using those opportunities to be of service to those in need and to recognize the basic humanity of every person in this country. How grateful I am to my family and all of you for making this opportunity possible.

Let’s leave here today with Dr. King’s message in our hearts. King reminds us that: “Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” I consider myself blessed and fortunate to have worked with the dedicated individuals at the Justice Department and in the civil rights movement. I know that your tireless exertions and passionate concern will carry us forward.

Thank you for commemorating with us today.