By The Editors

Tom Perez

Tom Perez, President Obama’s choice as Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division — the Administration’s point man on civil rights enforcement—formally took office November 13, amid a palpable sense of celebration among civil rights advocates. Officials of leading civil rights organizations joined top officials of the Justice Department to witness Perez’s swearing-in as head of the agency’s Civil Rights Division. They heard him pledge to both restore the division’s morale and vision of its mission in protecting American’s civil rights, but also make it “nimble enough to address the challenges on the horizon.”

Perez said it was imperative that the division serve “as a guiding light as we navigate new paths on the road to equal justice” because, despite President Obama’s historic election, the nation has not yet resolved its “long and complicated history of race relations.” Indeed, he stressed the need for even greater activity in the field because, “as we look back over the history of advancement of civil rights in our nation, each moment of great progress has been followed by periods of great challenge.”