Race

Ex-Attorney General Lynch Speaking At NC King Day Service

by Associated Press

Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the nation's first black woman to head the Justice Department, speaks during a conference on policy and blacks at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, Friday, April 7, 2017, in Cambridge, Mass. The 57-year-old North Carolina native graduated from Harvard College in 1981 and from Harvard Law School in 1984. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Former U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper top the list of notables attending the annual observance by state employees of the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Lynch was the scheduled keynote speaker at Friday's event at First Baptist Church in downtown Raleigh. She is a Greensboro native whom President Barack Obama nominated in 2014 to succeed Eric Holder. She was the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York before becoming the first African American woman as attorney general. She now works at a New York law firm.

The service features music by the state employees' choir and the awarding of a civil rights honor to a state employee known for a commitment to justice and equality.

The service locale has been exchanged over the years between the historically-white First Baptist congregation — site of Friday's event — and the historically-black First Baptist Church on the other side of old Capitol Square.

King was born 91 years ago on Wednesday.

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