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The Federal Bar Association has selected Judge Damon J. Keith as the recipient of the Association’s Sarah T. Hughes Award for 2006. The award will be presented at the FBA convention in late August. Judge Keith, who received his LL.M. from the Law School in 1956, is being honored for his “significant and inspiring contributions…to the advancement of civil rights, justice, and the legal profession.” Judge Keith received his LL.B. from Howard University in 1949, after serving in the U.S. Army. He practiced law in Detroit from 1950 to 1967, when he was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan; he served that Court for 12 years. From 1977 to 1995 he was a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and is now a senior judge on that Court. He has been active on numerous national judicial committees.
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The Sarah T. Hughes Civil Rights Award honors Sarah Tilghman Hughes. Judge Hughes graduated from George Washington University School of Law. In 1930 she was elected to the Texas House of Representatives and in 1935 she was appointed as a judge of the 14th District Court of Texas, the first woman to hold such a post. She served 26 years on the Court. President John F. Kennedy appointed Hughes to the federal district court in 1961; she was the first woman federal district court judge in Texas. Two years later, Hughes swore in Lyndon B. Johnson after President Kennedy’s assassination. The Sarah T. Hughes Civil Rights Award honors “that man or woman who promotes the advancement of civil and human rights amongst us, and who exemplifies Judge Hughes’ spirit and legacy of devoted service and leadership in the cause of equality.”
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