The career of Damon Jerome Keith is among the most remarkable in the annals of American justice. This unconventional, Detroit-born judge was once a janitor, and his personal struggles, like several of his high-profile rulings, resonate with our ongoing conversation about civil rights.
Walk With Me focuses on four highly fraught cases that appeared on Keith’s docket, all of which concerned discriminatory practices within the realms of housing, education, employment and law enforcement. Keith’s decisions placed him in precarious opposition to angry crowds, corporate America, the KKK and a certain former President. Keith’s life and work, which, now more than ever, deserves to be reckoned with—and celebrated.