By: Dahleen Glanton, Tribune reporter

Otis McDonald forever will be known as the man who brought down Chicago’s gun ban. The landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that bears his name forced Chicago to fall in line with the rest of the country and allow citizens to keep firearms in their homes for self-defense. The justices’ 5-4 decision in 2010 said the Second Amendment did indeed apply to the states, effectively ending the city’s nearly three-decade handgun ban. Those in the pro-gun movement called Mr. McDonald a hero. But regardless of where people stood in the tense battle over gun rights, many would say he was courageous.

In an interview with the Tribune after winning the suit, Mr. McDonald said the journey had been a lesson in history. He had come to understand more about his ancestors and the “slave codes” enacted in Southern states during the Civil War that prohibited slaves from owning guns. After slavery was abolished, states adopted “black codes” that kept guns out of the hands of freed blacks. “There was a wrong done a long time ago that dates back to slavery time,” he said in the interview. “I could feel the spirit of those people running through me as I sat in the Supreme Court.”

Born in 1933 to Louisiana sharecroppers, Mr. McDonald came to Chicago in 1952 after serving time in the Army. He eventually landed a job as a janitor at the University of Chicago and worked his way up to a maintenance engineer. He had left school at the age of 14, never earning a high school diploma. But while working at the U. of C., he returned to school, earning an associate degree from Kennedy-King College. He retired in 1996.

“He was more than a conqueror of that city’s ban on handguns. He was and will always remain a true hero who stood for the rights of men all his adult life, breaking through formidable barriers to make a better life for all those who followed after.

“One of his favorite lines was ‘If you have not found something you will die for, you have not yet lived.'”