Wayne State University Law School received a $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan in support of new programming at the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.
The Keith Center honors the life and legacy of Judge Damon J. Keith by carrying out his vision for civil rights.
The Keith Center will advance learning, attract talented faculty, students and lecturers, enhance programming, and promote civil rights. It will feature active programs of legal studies and will promote community engagement.
“Judge Damon Keith has long been a leader in our community and as a member of the judiciary, has been a courageous defender of civil rights,” said Mariam Noland, president of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan. “The Keith Center will inspire and empower future generations to take up and carry on the mantle of Judge Keith’s legacy.”
“In 2009, the law school moved forward on a number of Keith Center programming initiatives thanks to more than $2.5 million in endowments,” said Law School Dean Robert M. Ackerman. “This gift from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan will allow us to offer our students and community a greater array of programs devoted to civil rights education and awareness.”
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Keith Center is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, May 17.
The 10,000-square-foot building will feature an exhibit area, meeting space, conference space and a 60-person lecture hall.
An exhibit area featuring Keith’s life and work and focusing on civil rights will also serve as a reception area for the law school’s clinics.
U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. will speak at the groundbreaking event, which will be held on Wayne State University’s campus adjacent to the law school.
Along with Holder, Keith and Ackerman, other dignitaries scheduled to attend include A. Alfred Taubman, Edsel B. Ford II, members of the WSU Board of Governors and WSU President Jay Noren.
Other recent significant gifts to the Keith Center include a combined gift from the Henry Ford II Fund and the Edsel B. Ford II Fund and a gift from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
In 2006, real estate developer and philanthropist A. Alfred Taubman ma— the largest in the Law School’s history — to Wayne Law in honor of Judge Keith.
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