Damon Keith will deliver address

Damon Keith, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, will be speaking at the College graduation ceremony on Monday in Tappan Square.

Up to 700 Oberlin College graduating seniors will receive their degrees and wait to hear encouraging words of the future from Keith, and others. Along with the awarded graduate degrees to parting seniors, Keith will be awarded the honorary Doctor of Law degree.

Keith has served as chief judge for District Court in Michigan for the past 21 years. Among his decisions involving segregation Keith determined the outcome of a landmark case of the United States vs. Sinclair. In his decision, Keith ruled that without a warrant, former President Richard Nixon and former Attorney General John Mitchell could not engage in wiretap surveillance of three people potentially involved in a conspiracy to destroy governmental property. Keith felt the surveillance was in violation of the Fourth Amendment. This case later became known as "The Keith Decision."

Keith will be receiving an award along with five other Oberlin College alumni Denyce Graves, F. Champion Ward, Albert McQueen and Jerry Greenfield.