(YouTube) Damon Keith
Civil rights icon Judge Damon Keith has passed away at the age of 96. Keith died in his home in Detroit, Michigan, at about 6:40 a.m. on April 28 surrounded by family, according to the Detroit Free Press. Keith, the grandson of slaves, was born on July 4 in 1922 and grew up in Detroit. “Judge Keith was one of the most influential Federal jurists of the 20th and 21st centuries,” said Judge Eric Clay in a statement. “His rulings in over 52 years on the bench had a profound impact on American life. His decisions ranged from prohibiting the Nixon Administration from warrantless wiretapping in national security cases, to the integration of the Detroit Police Department and the Pontiac Public Schools.”
He was known for his record on civil rights, especially for his rulings on desegregation, privacy rights, and the rights of detainees. During the Nixon administration, Keith ruled that the government could not wiretap individuals without a warrant. Decades later, Keith said that George W. Bush couldn’t carry out secret deportation hearings of terrorism suspects.
Here’s what you need to know about Damon Keith:
1. The Nixon Administration Sued Him Over His Ruling on Wiretapping
In 1971, Keith ruled that President Richard Nixon and his Attorney General, John Mitchell, had violated the US Constitution when they wiretapped members of the White Panther party without a warrant. The government was wiretapping the students’ phones as part of its investigation of the bombing of a CIA bureau in Annn Arbor, Michigan. The Nixon administration appealed the ruling, and an appellate court upheld Keith’s decision.
The government then filed a lawsuit against Keith, personally. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court, with Keith eventually winning. The case became famous and was later referred to simply as “the Keith case.”
2. He Was a Detroit Native & His Father Was a Factory Worker for Ford
I moved to Detroit almost 15 years ago to clerk for one of our nation’s most iconic civil rights jurists and leaders. In reflection of Judge Damon Keith’s leadership and his devotion to seeking true equality and justice in our city and state, I stayed. (1/4)
Damon Keith was the youngest of six children. His father, Perry Keith, was originally from Georgia but moved to Detroit to work for the Ford Motor Company. Keith often spoke about the values of family and hard work that he learned from his father. He called his father “was the finest man I’d ever known” and said, “Number 1, he was a family man.”
Keith said that his father often urged him to “go out and make something of myself.” He said that his father was a factory worker who would, he said, go “out in snow and ice every morning to the factory and come back with scars over his face.” Perry Keith also ran a real estate business.
3. His Wife, Rachel Boone, Was a Pioneering Doctor & the Couple Had Three Daughters
Keith married Rachel Boone in 1953. Boone was the daughter of missionaries and was born in Monrovia, Liberia; she grew up in Richmond, Virginia. She had a groundbreaking career in medicine, breaking down gender and racial barriers to earn a medical degree from Boston University in 1949. She went on to work at Detroit Receiving Hospital before eventually going into private practice. Boone died in 2007.
The couple had three daughters: Cecile Keith Brown, Debbie Keith and Gilda Keith. They also had two granddaughters. One of their granddaughters, Nia Keith Brown, became a lawyer. Damon Keith himself swore her in to practice law in federal court.
4. He Ordered the Detroit Police Department to Integrate
Judge Damon Keith’s education, best-known cases and clerks t.co/Qp1GJUTQ1U
One of Keith’s best-known cases was the case of Baker v. City of Detroit, in 1979. In that landmark case, Keith issued a ruling ordering the Detroi Police Department to Ordered the Detroit Police Department to follow through with an order from the mayor to integrate. Keith also issued a ruling ordering busing to desegregate the public schools in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1970.
Also in 1971, Keith ordered the city of Detroit to build new public housing units after the city knocked down existing homes in black neighborhoods to build the Chrysler Freeway. Keith said that the city of Detroit had been carrying out “Negro romoval” under the guise of urban renewal.
Garrett v. City of Hamtramck, 1971: Ruled that Hamtramck practiced so-called “Negro removal” under the guise of urban renewal and ordered the city to build new public housing.
5. Keith Never Retired & Was Still Hearing Cases at the Age of 96
In 1973, Judge Damon Keith ordered Detroit Edison Company to pay $4 million in punitive damages to Black workers there. Keith ruled in Stamps v. Detroit Edison Co. that they have been victims of “deliberate” and “invidious” racial discrimination. He died today at age 96.
At the time of his death, Damon Keith was still serving as a federal judge on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for Cinncinnatti. The Associated Press reported that he was still hearing cases four times a year.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer announced that all flags on state buildings would be lowered to half-mast for Keith’s burial. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson described Keith as a “legal titan” whose death would be deeply felt by the nation. She said,
“Our country has lost a legal titan who spent more than half a century as a crusader for civil rights. His decisions from the bench prevented the federal government from infringing on individual liberties and helped to battle systemic racism in corporations, municipalities and schools.”