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BY SOPHIE DORF-KAMIENNY | In a long-awaited move—and on the one year anniversary of the death of George Floyd—the Senate confirmed Kristen Clarke to lead the Justice Department’s Civil Rights division. Clarke will be the first Black woman to serve in the role since the department was established in 1957. The final vote was 51–48, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) as the lone Republican joining Democrats as the tie-breaking vote.
“We fought a long and challenging battle to make this confirmation happen,” said Damon Hewitt, acting president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, in a statement after the vote. “Kristen faced racist and sexist attacks as a nominee, despite being among the most qualified people to ever be nominated for the position. … The road was tougher than it should have been. But we never backed down in the fight for progress.”
This will be Clarke’s second time serving in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, where she began her career prosecuting hate crimes, human trafficking and police misconduct, in addition to protecting Americans’ voting rights.
In accepting her nomination, Clarke vowed to “turn the page on hate and close the door on discrimination by enforcing our federal civil rights laws,” citing leaders like Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker Motley as key influences. (To read the full article, click here.)
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