Inspirational Photo - John Doar

John Doar, my Grandfather, is a man who never looks for much praise or recognition, although I know he enjoys it from time to time. Born in a small town in Wisconsin he left his quiet life as a young lawyer to work in Washington D.C. for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Justice Department. Spending most of his time traveling in the deep South, trying to understand the problems that many people had been avoiding, it was his job as a civil rights lawyer to expose corruption and empower black communities. When people ask him why he did what he did and how did he find the courage, he answers in a calm, matter-of-fact manner that he was just doing the only type of work that he knew how to do.

This picture was taken in 1963 during a hot summer day in Mississippi. On the side of the street that you can see in the background of this image stood hundreds of trigger itchy local lawmen and on the other side of the street, invisible to the viewer, stood hundreds of African-Americans filled with grief and anger. They had just left the funeral of Medgar Evans, the field secretary of the NAACP, who a few evenings earlier had returned home after a long day of work only to be shot in the back as he got out of his car, his wife and children just inside the door.

While walking down the white business district singing “This Little Light of Mine” the peaceful protest began to escalate into a possible violent confrontation. There in the middle of two angry mobs my grandfather stepped out. Bottles and bricks were flying past his head and police dogs biting at his heels, but with the same familiar calm he stood tall and spoke to the crowd. “You’re not going to win anything with bottles and bricks. My name is John Doar – D-O-A-R, I’m from the Justice Department and anybody around here knows I stand for what is right.” He explained how Medgar Evans would not have wanted this and urged the crowds to disperse. Reporters who were present wrote about that day as being well on its way to becoming a violent riot of epic proportions if it was not for John Doar.

That day my grandfather did something that no lawyer is expected to do but as a friend of Medgar Evans, he told Charles Potis of the Los Angeles Times “it seemed the only thing to do.” It is not always about doing what you are asked to do but about doing what is right even in times of controversy or when there are possible consequences. This image reminds me of my grandfather’s courage and the values around which he lived his life.