Mourners filed past the casket of the late Judge Damon Keith Saturday, paying respects to the deceased jurist during public calling hours at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Judge Damon Jerome Keith
July 4, 1922 – April 28, 2019
Keith's casket was surrounded by bouquets of red roses, portraits and awards from the NAACP and Wayne County.
(The judge's nephew, Wayne County Probate Judge) Terrance Keith said his uncle and Thurgood Marshall were good friends.
"They had a personal pact that they would fight for equal justice for everyone under the law," he said. "That history carries with and inspires me each day."
Terrance Keith greeted hundreds of mourners at his uncle's bier. The late Judge Keith, who served on the federal Court of Appeals in Detroit, was a pivotal figure in many civil-rights cases. The jurist, who was 96, died April 28.
A funeral will be Monday at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, simulcast on WDIV
The family suggests memorials be made to the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School "to empower the next generation of civil rights leaders." The address is Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, 471 W. Palmer St., Detroit, MI 48202
An alternate beneficiary is the Dr. Rachel Boone Keith Prize Fund, which honors the judge's late wife, who died in 2007. That permanently endowed fund, established by her family, provide annual awards to one or more fourth-year African-American female students who demonstrate excellence in clinical performance at Boston University's School of Medicine.
Checks should be payable to Boston University Trustrees, designating the Rachel Boone Keith Fund. The address is BU School of Medicine, 75 Albany St., L219, Boston, MA 02118.
