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SHAPING
A LIFE: HIS DETERMINATION
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"My father was my motivation
and my desire to make something of myself."
- Damon J. Keith
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Damon Jerome Keith was born in Detroit on July 4th, 1922
to Annie and Perry Alexander Keith. His father was an autoworker.
Both of his grandfathers had been slaves and Damon was taught
to honor his ancestors by striving to achieve. Damon was the
youngest of six children and the first to attend college,
fulfilling his father's dream that he would live to see one
of his children receive a higher education.
Damon graduated from West Virginia State College in 1943.
His father died shortly after attending the ceremony.
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"Judge Keith's parents produced
a son who never forgot his race, but who never felt
confined or impeded by it."
- William T. Coleman, Jr.
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After college, Keith was drafted into the military. His experience
of serving his country within the segregated Army where blacks
were relegated to the lowest ranks deepened his dedication
to the cause of civil rights. After his term, Keith enrolled
at Howard Law School where he heard prominent black attorneys
such as Thurgood Marshall practice their Supreme Court arguments
before the students. Keith was so convinced that the law was
the best way to effect social change.
Keith passed the Michigan bar in 1950 and received the news
while working as a janitor in Detroit. Keith clerked for a
prominent black firm and then worked as a Friend of the Court
enforcement attorney.
Keith started his own practice with four other black attorneys
in 1957. The firm represented black businesses and athletes
and quickly grew in prestige. Keith was also very active in
the Democratic Party and was developing important political
connections that he leveraged to help his community. He was
appointed chair of the Detroit Housing Commission and of the
Michigan Civil Rights Commission.
"They say opposites attract.
I am an extrovert. She is an introvert."
- Damon J. Keith |
In 1953, Keith married Rachel Boone, whom he met while she
was completing her residency at a Detroit hospital. The Keiths
have three daughters who all have advanced degrees.
In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson, upon the recommendation
of Michigan Senator Philip Hart, appointed Damon Keith to
the United States District Court for the Eastern District
of Michigan, where he served as Chief Judge from 1975 to 1977.
President Jimmy Carter then elevated Judge Keith to the Court
of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. In 1995, Judge Keith took
senior status.
Saluting a Giant:
"An imperative component of
the civil rights strategy was that talented, indeed brilliant,
dedicated lawyers press the fight on all fronts. Damon
Keith fought the war at home in his native Detroit and
the improvement of the community served as both the primary
objective of, and reward for, his efforts."
- Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. |
"I hope when others think
of me, they will see a person who believed in the Constitution
and who tried to use the law to make things better - to
make a difference." The segregated
schools alone were sufficient proof of racial discrimination,
even if the schools were built to coincide.
- Damon J. Keith |
SHAPING THE LAW: HIS DECISIONS
"Damon J. Keith, you love
Lady Justice's blindness and you gave her your heart so
that her truth has a home."
- The Honorable Frank X. Altimari, U.S. Court
of Appeals, Second Circuit |
Davis v. School District of Pontiac, Inc. 309 F. Supp.
734 (1970)
In a landmark decision, Judge Keith ruled that segregated
schools alone were built to coincide with housing patterns.
He ordered the city to begin busing. In Judge Keith's words:
| "When the power to act is
available, failure to take the necessary steps so as to
negate or alleviate a situation which is harmful is as
wrong as is the taking of affirmative steps to advance
that situation....The Board is guilty of de jure segregation.
The fact that such came slowly and surreptitiously rather
than by legislative pronouncement makes the situation
no less evil." |
U.S. v. Sinclair 321 F. Supp 1074 (1971)
A case is so important it came to be known as the "Keith
decision." Judge Keith found that the federal government
had no power to wiretap any individual without a warrant.
The Nixon administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which
then upheld Judge Keith's ruling. In Judge Keith's words:
| "In our democracy all men
are to receive equal and exact justice regardless of their
political beliefs or persuasions. The Executive branch
of our Government cannot be given the power or the opportunity
to investigate and prosecute criminal violations under
two different standards....Such power held by one individual
[The President] was never contemplated by the framers
of our Constitution and cannot be tolerated today."
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Garrett v. City of Hamtramck 335 F. Supp 16 (1971)
Garrett v. City of Hamtramck (2000)
Judge Keith ruled that the city of Hamtramck, Michigan
practiced "Negro removal" under the guise of urban
renewal and ordered the city to build affordable new housing
for the displaced residents. In July of 2001, three decades
after the initial order, Judge Keith found that the city had
still not complied. He ordered the immediate construction
of seventy subsidized homes of the defendants and their heirs.
Stamps v. Detroit Edison Co. 365 F. Supp. 87 (1973)
Judge Keith ruled that the defendants had practiced systematic
racial discrimination and ordered Detroit Edison to enact
an aggressive affirmative action program.
Taken as a whole, Judge Keith's
work embodies the standards of a man who sticks to principle
and who understands the human dimensions of the law."
- Justice Stephen Breyer |
SHAPING THE NATION: HIS DISTINCTIONS
"The American judiciary and
our nation would have been far lesser institutions if
Damon Keith had not been appointed a federal judge."
- Professor A Leon Higginbotham, Jr. |
Judge Keith has received many prestigious awards, including
the Springarn Award from the NAACP, the Thurgood Marshall
Award from the ABA, and the Edward J. Devitt Award. He has
had two public schools named in his honor and has received
over thirty Honorary Doctorates. In 1987, Chief Justice Renquist
appointed Judge Keith the Chairman of the Judicial Conference
Committee on the Bicentennial of the Constitution. Judge Keith's
name appears on 300 commemorative Bill of Rights plaques displayed
in courts and colleges around the nation.
"In your long career as civic
leader, lawyer and judge in your beloved Detroit, you
have come to stand not only for the rule of law but for
common sense in application. You were a pioneer in fashioning
the central role of the courts in ensuring equal justice
and you had the courage to face and resolve the most divisive
issues of our time. You have championed the causes of
Black Americans, of working people, of dissenters, and
of the poor."
- statement from Yale University in conferring Judge
Keith's Honorary Doctorate (1981) |
In 1993, Judge Keith established a unique law collection
at Wayne State University in Detroit that traces the contributions
of black lawyers and judges to American jurisprudence. The
centerpiece of the collection is a traveling exhibit called
"Marching Toward Justice."
SHAPING THE FUTURE: HIS LEGACY
"Judge Keith's concern for
placing and advancing bright, young lawyers is unsurpassed."
- Vernon E. Jordan, Jr. |
In his tenure on the federal bench, Judge Keith has hired
more than 70 law clerks, including more than 50 minority law
clerks - more than any other federal judge in history. These
clerks have enjoyed extraordinary success and have gone on
to become federal and state judges, law professors, state
attorney generals, corporation counsel, partners in major
law firms, and influential legal activists. Together they
comprise the Keith judicial family.
"The most important thing
that I took away from my clerkship was the sense of Judge
Keith's unwavering confidence in my ability. And that
was an anchor-that was an affirmation that he knew that
I could and indeed he knew that I would achieve."
- Professor Lani Guinier, Harvard Law School
Clerked for Judge Keith in 1974. |
"He has created in his law
clerks people who have the same approach to the law that
he has. People who are courageous pursuing what they perceive
as the truth."
- Professor James Coleman, Jr., Duke University
School of Law
Clerked for Judge Keith
in 1974. |
"All of us are bound by our
commitment to issues of justice and civil rights and we
all feel a very sincere sense of loyalty to this man who
has created a family that is so powerfully driven to change
the world."
- Jennifer Granholm, Michigan Attorney General
Clerked for Judge Keith in 1987. |
"The Honorable Damon J. Keith
is more than a title. It is something that exemplifies
the person and contributions that the person has made
and is continuing to make. It signifies someone who lives
a life of integrity, who leads by example, and who has
done so with an energy and intensity and focus that makes
all who know him both envious and proud."
- Eric Lee Clay, U.S. Court of Appeals, Six
Circuit
Clerked for judge Keith in 1972. |
For more information about Judge Keith, please visit this
site,
and further information may be found at:
http://www.reuther.wayne.edu/collections/hefa_1582.htm
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