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The walls inside the U.S. Justice Department headquarters are painted with themed murals depicting law and lawlessness (a couple being robbed at gunpoint; a man fleeing a mob into the protective arms of a judge). It dramatically establishes that you're in a place dedicated to the noble pursuit of American justice. Sitting at a large conference table underneath a mural called Triumphant Justice, Attorney General Eric Holder, the first African-American to hold the position, is cool and relaxed. And he seems a bit tired.

As the man charged with carrying out President Barack Obama's order to close Guantanamo Bay prison, many weighty issues are keeping him busy these days. The Justice Department is also facing the concern of prisoner abuse under the previous administration, tackling the prosecution of predatory mortgage lenders and trying to change unfair drug sentencing laws, to name a few examples. Despite criticism for either being too reckless or too passive, depending on which side of the aisle is talking, Holder says he's confident that he and the President are moving in the right direction.

The nation's top cop spoke with ESSENCE.com about racial disparities in the system, the questions swirling around Guantanamo, and what changes we'll see in his Justice Department.

ESSENCE.COM: Many African-Americans saw your appointment as an opportunity to really see change in the criminal justice system for us. How do you feel about these expectations from the Black community?
ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER: You don't want to over-promise, and you want people's expectations to be realistic. And yet, I understand as well. Given the focus in the community on the criminal justice system, with an African-American President and an African-American attorney general, you'd expect to see substantive changes. We've started to do exactly that. We've put a proposal before Congress that does away with the crack-powder disparity in sentencing. We have within the Justice Department a task force that's looking at the question of sentencing within the federal system-whether or not it's fair, or putting the right people in jail for the right periods of time. We've only been in office now for four and a half months, but as people start to see what our emphases are going to be when it comes to law enforcement and criminal justice system reform, I think people will understand that we're serious about that. It's a primary emphasis for this department and for this President.

ESSENCE.COM: You mentioned ending the "100 to 1" sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, which has led to far longer prison terms for Black drug offenders. Are you looking to lower the sentence for crack to match powder, or is it that you want powder raised to match crack?
HOLDER: We haven't really talked about the specifics of that. That's one of the things that we're going to have to work out with Congress, to figure out what's the mechanism used to reach that goal. What I can say is that, in the interactions I've had with people on the other side of the aisle, people who'd be identified as pretty conservative Republicans, there is a recognition that something's got to be done. It's having a negative impact of the ability of law enforcement to be effective. I'm not sure exactly what the mechanism is, or how it will be accomplished, but I think we stand a pretty good chance of getting it done.

ESSENCE.COM: Measures to change this law have come up before, but it seems to always stall.
HOLDER: Well, this is the first time that it's come from the executive branch, the first time that you've had a President and an attorney general say, "This is what we think needs to happen." When I was under the Clinton administration, we made proposals that would have decreased the disparity. What we're saying here is that there's really no law enforcement reason, no chemical basis for the distinction between the two, and we should just eliminate the disparity.