Law / Civil rights & activism
Damon Keith
1922–2019 · federal judge, civil rights lawyer
Detroit-born federal judge whose rulings desegregated Pontiac schools, struck down warrantless wiretaps and declared that 'democracies die behind closed doors'; he served on the bench for over 50 years.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 96- Birth name
- Damon Jerome Keith
- Also known as
- Damon J. Keith
- Detroit years
- 1922–2019
- Field
- Law, Civil rights & activism
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Damon Keith was born and raised in Detroit, the grandson of enslaved people, and graduated from Northwestern High School in 1939. After West Virginia State College and Army service in World War II he earned his law degree at Howard University, studying under Thurgood Marshall's circle, and later a master of laws at Wayne State. He practiced law in Detroit from 1950, worked in the Friend of the Court office and in 1964 became co-chair of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission. President Johnson appointed him to the federal district court in Detroit in 1967; there he ordered the desegregation of Pontiac's schools and, in 'the Keith case,' ruled that the Nixon administration's warrantless wiretaps were unconstitutional, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court. Promoted to the Sixth Circuit in 1977, he wrote in 2002 that 'democracies die behind closed doors' in striking down secret deportation hearings. He died at his Detroit home in 2019, aged 96.
Highlights
- U.S. District Judge, Eastern District of Michigan, 1967–1977
- Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 1977–2019
- 'The Keith case' (1972) against warrantless domestic wiretaps
- NAACP Spingarn Medal (1974)
- Graduate of Detroit's Northwestern High School (1939)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1967–2019
Theodore Levin United States Courthouse
Detroit's federal courthouse, where he sat as district judge and kept his chambers as an appeals judge.
Studied here · 1935–1939
Northwestern High School
The West Side public high school he graduated from in 1939.