Benjamin Crump

Benjamin Lloyd Crump (born October 10, 1969) is an American attorney who specializes in civil rights and catastrophic personal injury cases such as wrongful death lawsuits. His practice has focused on cases such as those of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Keenan Anderson, Sonya Massey, and Tyre Nichols, people affected by the Flint water crisis, the estate of Henrietta Lacks, the estate of Malcolm X, nearly 200 concertgoers from the 2021 Astroworld Festival, and the plaintiffs behind the 2019 Johnson & Johnson baby powder lawsuit alleging the company's talcum powder product led to ovarian cancer diagnoses. Crump is the founder of the firm Ben Crump Law of Tallahassee, Florida. In 2020, Crump became the attorney for the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake. In 2021, he became the attorney for a passenger in the car with Winston Boogie Smith and for the family of Daunte Wright. Ongoing cases surrounding their killings or injuries led to protests against police brutality in America as well as internationally. Due to his legal reputation, he has been referred to as "Black America's attorney general".^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

Benjamin Lloyd Crump was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, near Fort Bragg. The oldest of nine siblings and step-siblings, Crump grew up in an extended family and was raised by his grandmother. His mother, Helen, worked as a hotel maid and in a local Converse shoe factory. His mother sent him to attend South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida, where he lived with her second husband, a math teacher, whom Crump regards as his father. Crump attended Florida State University and received his bachelor's degree in criminal justice in 1992 and his Juris Doctor in 1995. He is a life member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.^[1]

In 2015, Crump represented the family of Antonio Zambrano-Montes, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who was killed by three policemen in Pasco, Washington. Also in 2015, he represented the family of Kendrick Johnson, an African-American high-school student who was found dead at his school in Valdosta, Georgia, under mysterious circumstances, but stepped down from their legal team in late 2015. In late 2015, Crump began representing the family of Corey Jones, who was killed by a plainclothes officer while waiting for a tow truck in South Florida. In 2016, Crump began representing the family of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man shot and killed by a Tulsa police officer. In 2017, Crump announced the opening of a new law firm, Ben Crump Law, PLLC. In 2018, Crump represented the family of Zeke Upshaw in a wrongful death suit after Upshaw, an NBA G League player, collapsed mid-game and was delayed assistance by the NBA's paramedics. Also in 2018 he became a board member for the National Black Justice Coalition. In 2019, Crump partnered with law firm Pintas & Mullins to hold several rallies in Flint, Michigan for communities affected by the Flint water crisis. Also in 2019, Crump began representing several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson alleging that the company's talc powder was directly related to said-plaintiffs' ovarian cancer diagnoses.^[2]