WASHINGTON (AP) — Moments after making fresh demands that Attorney General Eric Holder open federal investigations into police shootings of unarmed black men, a cluster of civil rights activists learned, courtesy of whispers and a shared e-tablet, that the nation’s first black attorney general was stepping down.

Civil rights leaders, liberal activists and black lawmakers are now left wondering what effect Holder’s impending departure will have on the high-profile efforts begun on his watch. “There’s a lot for us to calculate,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was meeting with black leaders in Washington.