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Bob Dole, Eric Holder, Laura Murphy honored at civil rights dinner

Former Kansas senator Bob Dole was honored at the Hubert H. Humphrey Civil and Human Rights Award (civilrights.org) dinner Wednesday night.

Senator Bob Dole, awarded for his role in civil and human rights.  Photo CD Brown.
Dole is also known for championing the rights of the disadvantaged and the disabled.  He spent thirty-five years in Congress beginning in 1960 and was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1971 to 1972. Dole, 92, holds the record as the nation's longest serving Republican leader.  He is also known for his role and accomplishments in health care, foreign affairs and deficit reduction.

Also honored was former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Holder was the 82nd, and first African American attorney general serving under the first African American U.S. president Barack Obama, since 2009.  Holder came under fire for his stance on Benghazi, the Ferguson investigation and as of late, the so-called war on police.

Eric Holder and Laura Murphy (in red) pose for pictures after the
Hubert H. Humphrey Civil and Human Rights awards dinner.  Photo/CD Brown.

In his acceptance speech Holder pointed out what he sees as his successes, saying to the audience that more had been done during his tenure as attorney general than at any other time in history.  He is known for taking on the issues. Among them, the voting rights act, stop and frisk policies, and harsh and unequal drug sentencing practices.

"If that isn't justice, then you show me what is", he said.

Still oponents, like Republican senator Ted Cruz, refer to Holder as "the most partisan attorney general in our history, repeatedly defying and refusing to enforce the law."

Holder resigned earlier this year and is succeeded by Attorney General Loretta Lynch who recently launched a police probe into the death of unarmed Baltimore resident Freddie Gray.

Dole and Holder shared the spotlight with iconic civil and human rights advocate Laura Murphy. Murphy is president of Laura Murphy & Associates, a D.C. political and management consulting firm and previously served as director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office.

Her family started Baltimore's Afro newspaper.

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