Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning today.

Attorney General Eric Holder is resigning after heading the Justice Department for six years. He is the nation’s first black attorney general.

A White House official says President Barack Obama will announce Holder’s departure at 3:30 p.m. Thursday Central time.

“Attorney General Holder has discussed his plans personally with the president on multiple occasions in recent months, and finalized those plans in an hour-long conversation with the president at the White House residence over Labor Day weekend,” a Justice Department official told ABCNews.com.

He plans to remain at the Justice Department until his successor is in place.

The 63-year-old former judge and prosecutor took office in early 2009 as the U.S. government grappled with the worst financial crisis in decades and with divisive questions on the handling of captured terrorism suspects, issues that helped shape his six-year tenure as the country’s top law enforcement official. He is the fourth-longest serving attorney general in U.S. history.