Michael Brown Shooting: Attorney General Eric Holder arrives in Ferguson, MO

Attorney General Eric Holder arrived in Ferguson, Missouri in an effort to defuse some of the tension that has bubbled up nightly since the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.

While in Ferguson, Holder met with members of the community to hear their concerns about policing, the response to protesters, and racial profiling.

In remarks to the Florissant Valley Campus of the St. Louis Community College system, Holder told personal anecdotes about how racial profiling affected him growing up as a black man in America.

In one anecdote, Holder recounts how he was stopped and accused of speeding twice in New Jersey. Both stops used speeding as a pretext to search his vehicle for no reason. He said the incident made him angry and exposed him to what it truly meant to be a black man in America.

In another incident, he describes how he and a cousin of his were late, running to catch a movie. They were in the posh D.C. neighborhood of Georgetown when an officer stopped them and demanded to know where they were going. That incident also left Holder upset and angry, but it gave him more resolve to do his job at that time, as a federal prosecutor, to the utmost of his ability.

Holder ended his remarks by praising the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. He said that the work done by the Civil Rights Division under Obama's leadership will be one of the hallmarks of Obama's historical legacy.

In other Ferguson news, Reuters reports that a grand jury has come together to evaluate the evidence in the Michael Brown shooting. Their decision will determine if charges are brought against Officer Darren Wilson at the state level. A separate federal civil rights investigation is also taking place.