Funeral arrangements have been announced for federal judge and civil rights icon Damon J. Keith, who died Sunday at age 96.
A public visitation will be held May 11 from 8-8 p.m. at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History (315 E. Warren Avenue). The Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Phi Pi fraternities will hold a fraternal memorial service at 5 p.m.
Judge Keith’s homegoing celebration is scheduled for May 13 at 10 a.m. at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church (18700 James Couzens Freeway). The service will be simulcast at Wayne State’s Community Arts Auditorium, 450 Reuther Mall.
He will be interred at Roseland Park Cemetery, 29001 N. Woodward Ave. in Berkley. The Swanson Funeral Home is handling the services.
Born July 4, 1922 in Detroit, Judge Keith served as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit since 1977. Prior to joining the Court of Appeals, Judge Keith served on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, at the Michigan Civil Rights Commission and as a member of the U.S. Army.
For more than 50 years, Judge Keith persuasively and movingly defended the Constitution, helping communities enforce their civil rights. He was a civil rights icon. His decisions desegregated public schools, broken color lines at corporations and required municipalities to repair the damage caused by systemic racism.
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