Free tickets available to UB’s MLK Jr. Commemoration Event featuring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

BUFFALO, N.Y. – The University at Buffalo is offering local schools and not-for-profit organizations free tickets to the 41st Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration event, featuring former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, to be held at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 16, in Alumni Arena, UB North Campus.

The Commemoration program is part of UB’s Distinguished Speakers Series.

Western New York high schools, religious and not-for-profit community service organizations can receive up to 20 complimentary tickets per group, while supplies last, through the Distinguished Speakers Series’ Educational Outreach Program.  Ticket requests will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Visit www.buffalo.edu/ub-speakers for more information and to request complimentary tickets to this event. The deadline to request tickets is Wednesday, Feb. 1.  The Educational Outreach Program is sponsored by Hodgson Russ LLP, The Buffalo News and the Communities of Giving Legacy Initiative of the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.

Under President Barack Obama, Holder served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. He was the first African-American to serve in that position, and third-longest-serving attorney general in the nation’s history. Holder oversaw the government’s efforts to address critical issues at the intersection of law and public policy, including national security investigations and prosecutions; the defense of voting rights and marriage equality; and reform of the federal criminal justice system.

Holder recently signed on to lead the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a newly formed political group aimed at untangling the voting districts some feel are designed to strengthen the power of the Republican Party in Washington and many state capitals.   He has said that he believes that the current U.S. districts map threatens the nation’s democracy by providing a system “where the politicians are picking their voters, as opposed to voters making selections about who they want to represent them.”

Holder will also serve as an advisor and outside counsel to the California Legislature to help continue the progress California has made with respect to climate change, health care, civil rights and immigration issues.

Prior to his term as U.S. attorney general, Holder held appointments under a number of U.S. presidents: Associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia under Ronald Regan; deputy attorney general of the United States under Bill Clinton; and acting attorney general in 2001 pending the confirmation of John Ashcroft under George W. Bush.

Holder earned his JD at Columbia Law School and is a partner at Covington & Burling LLP.  He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees in recognition of his professional and civic contributions, including the NAACP Chairman’s Award, George Washington University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Medal for Outstanding Service in Human Rights, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights’ Robert F. Kennedy Justice Prize.