By D. Kevin McNeir
Special to the AFRO
Few attorneys are as closely tied to America’s civil rights struggles as Benjamin Crump. Known for representing families in high-profile wrongful death cases, Crump has become a leading legal voice in the fight against police brutality and racial injustice.
His clients have included the families of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, and others whose deaths sparked national and global protests. Crump has also fought for those impacted by the Flint water crisis and the estates of Henrietta Lacks and Malcolm X—cementing his status as one of the most influential attorneys of his time.
In 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic spread around the world, he waged war in American courtrooms over the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
Arbery was shot down by two White men while running in a predominantly White neighborhood in February 2020. The next month, Taylor, 26, was wrongfully shot and killed on March 13, 2020, just days before the country shut down to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Taylor was shot to death during the execution of a “no-knock” warrant at her home in Louisville, Ky. And then an officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, for more than nine minutes.
Crump and his team secured a $12M settlement for Taylor’s family in September 2020. This historic settlement, one of the largest payouts for a Black woman killed by police in the U.S., was accompanied by tangible policy changes in the city of Louisville. “No-knock” search warrants are now banned in Louisville under legislation called “Breonna’s Law.”
In March 2021, the city of Minneapolis awarded a $27M settlement to the Floyd family. And in August 2022 three men were convicted by a federal judge for racially motivated crimes in the death of Arbery.
Five years after the deaths of Arbery, Taylor and Floyd, the AFRO spoke with Crump about his work and what still needs to be done to effect change.
AFRO: As we mark five years since the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, what lessons do you believe are most important for African Americans to carry forward?
Ben Crump: We can never be complacent. Justice is not a destination – it’s a perpetual journey. The struggle is real, and we cannot become depressed because of the struggle. We should, instead, celebrate the struggle because as Frederick Douglass said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
AFRO: What is the status on laws or policies routinely employed by law enforcement like knee on the neck, neck restrain chokeholds, and no-knock warrants, or even stand your ground laws which generally allow individuals to use deadly force in self-defense without a duty to retreat, even if they could safely withdraw from a situation?
BC: So many of these laws seem to be biased in their application. As my personal hero, Justice Thurgood Marshall advised, we must fight all of them.
It’s not a fair fight because we must fight all of them at once. Today, with the progress we’ve made in civil rights being rolled back, we must speak truth to power. Just as some are unapologetic in espousing White supremacy beliefs and acting on them, we must be equally unapologetic in our defense of Black life, liberty and humanity. And while we have made progress since the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, and achieved historic justice in those cases, we should understand that racism is a shift-changing, ever-present cancer. We must always be prepared for it to raise its ugly head in new ways.
AFRO: Many African Americans admit that they’re afraid of local police and fear that they will not be treated fairly. How do you assess the relationship between Black people and law enforcement across America? Is race still a factor?
BC: Race is absolutely still a factor, particularly given what’s been happening within the federal government under the Trump Administration. Americans have grown more overt in making statements that proclaim their belief that Black and Brown people are inferior to Whites.
Consider the ongoing attack on DEI which they have made a bad word. Nothing could be more noble than stepping in and supporting DEI initiatives. It’s clear that they’re coming for us and that they believe that no matter how much education or experience Black people bring to the table, we didn’t get there because of merit but by a quota. The reality remains, if you look at the credentials of many of the top people within the Trump Administration, none of them have the merit that makes them qualified for the positions they now hold – and that’s from the top down.
AFRO: It’s widely believed that your work on the Trayvon Martin case in 2012 helped solidify your position as a leading civil rights attorney. Further, the case sparked widespread conversation about race, police brutality, and the justice system. How were you personally impacted?
BC: The verdict – that is the exoneration of Trayvon’s killer – caused me to reconsider the way I thought about the justice system as it relates to Black people. I concluded that the system was not administering justice equally to Black people. The only way we were going to achieve justice for the victims of police-involved excessive force and implicit bias was to reframe the narrative, be more strategic, and rely on us to save us.
AFRO: You have achieved phenomenal success in several high-profile cases in your career. What have you learned and what has surprised you the most?
BC: The biggest thing I’ve learned is that with each success come greater challenges. Those who are enemies of equality become even more intentional in making it more difficult for us to knock down those walls that keep Black people from realizing America’s promise of us having an equal opportunity for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They don’t want the victories that I have achieved – landmark victories in American jurisprudence – to be able to inspire the next generation of civil rights lawyers and leaders.
AFRO: Some people refer to you as “Black America’s Attorney General.” How do you feel about that title, given the work you do as an advocate for social justice?
BC: First, I am humbled that the Reverend Al Sharpton and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and others, gave me that title. I always feel a sense of obligation when I hear people refer to me in that way and it makes me go out and fight even harder against the intellectual justification of discrimination.
One thing I realized during my recent travels to Africa is that when we allow 1619 to be a benchmark, that’s America’s attempt to define and to predict what Black history is. But our history did not start with, nor will it end with slavery. Africa has over 10,000 years of documented history. Our history is far greater than America’s 400 years of history which they try to project on us. From Shaka Zulu to the Moors, Africans ruled Europe for centuries. That’s our history.
