John Doar

John Doar
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Name	John Doar
Caption	John Doar in 1973
Birth date	3 December 1921
Birth place	New Richmond, Wisconsin
Death date	11 November 2014
Death place	New York City, New York
Alma mater	Princeton University (B.A.), University of California, Berkeley (B.S.), University of Chicago Law School (J.D.)
Occupation	Lawyer, public servant
Known for	Civil rights litigation, Watergate investigation
Spouse	Ann B. Doar, 1954, 2014

John Doar. John Doar was an American lawyer and public servant who served as a leading attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice during the 1960s. He played a pivotal role in enforcing federal civil rights laws in the American South, prosecuting high-profile cases of racial violence and defending the rights of African Americans to vote and attend desegregated schools. His courageous on-the-ground work during the Civil Rights Movement and his later role as chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate scandal cemented his legacy as a nonpartisan defender of constitutional law.

Early life and education

John Michael Doar was born in New Richmond, Wisconsin, into a family with a tradition of public service. He attended Princeton University, graduating with a degree in Public and International Affairs in 1944. After serving in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, he earned a second bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He then pursued a legal education, graduating from the University of Chicago Law School in 1949. After law school, Doar returned to Wisconsin to practice law in the family firm, Doar, Drill & Skow, in New Richmond.

Career in the Justice Department

In 1960, Doar was appointed First Assistant in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department under the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He continued in this role under President John F. Kennedy and was promoted to Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. During this period, the Civil Rights Division was the primary federal instrument for enforcing the nascent Civil Rights Act of 1957 and Civil Rights Act of 1960. Doar's mandate was to travel to the South to investigate violations, often at great personal risk, and to file lawsuits to protect voting rights and school desegregation.

Role in key civil rights cases

Doar was directly involved in some of the most significant legal confrontations of the era. In 1962, he personally escorted James Meredith, the first African American student, during his tumultuous enrollment at the University of Mississippi, a crisis known as the Ole Miss riot of 1962. The following year, he was on the ground in Birmingham, Alabama, during the Birmingham campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr.. His most famous courtroom moment came during the 1965 trial of Collie Leroy Wilkins, a member of the Ku Klux Klan accused in the murder of Viola Liuzzo. When a defense witness perjured himself, Doar famously turned to the all-white jury and declared, "I'm from Wisconsin, but I say to you that this man's life is in your hands." The jury deadlocked, leading to a mistrial, but Doar's powerful appeal became legendary.

Prosecution of civil rights murders

Doar was instrumental in the federal prosecution of perpetrators of racially motivated murders where state authorities failed to act. He led the Justice Department's efforts in the Mississippi Burning case, involving the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers—Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney—near Philadelphia, Mississippi. Doar successfully prosecuted seven men, including Sam Bowers, the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, for conspiring to deprive the victims of their civil rights under the 1870 federal civil rights statutes. This landmark case demonstrated the federal government's commitment to using its authority to achieve justice where local courts would not.

Later career and legacy

After leaving the Justice Department in 1967, Doar entered private practice in New York City. In 1973, he was appointed chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee's impeachment inquiry into President Richard Nixon concerning the Watergate scandal. Doar's meticulously nonpartisan and exhaustive investigation, which produced the famed "Doar Report," was crucial in building the case for impeachment. He later served as president of the New York City Board of Education from 1978 to 1980. Doar received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2012. He is remembered as a tenacious and principled lawyer whose work in the Civil Rights Movement and during Watergate upheld the rule of law at critical junctures in American history.