Obama praises famed civil rights lawyer

President Obama said Tuesday he was saddened to hear of the death of John Doar, praising the civil rights icon as “one of the bravest American lawyers of his or any era.”

The president said that, without Doar’s perseverance, he and the first lady “might not be where we are today.”

{mosads}Doar died Tuesday at 92. 

Doar, who served as the chief lawyer for the Justice Department’s civil rights division during the 1960s, repeatedly put his life at risk, as he brought cases against members of the Ku Klux Klan who had killed blacks throughout the South.

He rode with the Freedom Riders in Alabama and helped escort James Meredith, when he integrated the University of Mississippi in 1962.

“He laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act,” Obama said. “Time and time again, John put his life on the line to make real our country’s promise of equal rights for all.”

Doar, a Wisconsin Republican, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.

In addition to his work on civil rights issues, Doar worked as the chief counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate investigation in 1974. He also investigated Miami judge and now Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) in a high-profile bribery case, and defended Eastman Kodak in a monopoly case brought by a rival photography firm.