Benjamin Crump
Attorney Profile
“History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure.” -Thurgood Marshall
Distinguished lawyers whose names are on the pages of American History books are not there because of their pedigree, their alma mater, or even their affluence–it is because of the landmark cases they won and how their success has changed jurisprudence. As an attorney, among Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall’s landmark cases was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; Attorney Johnnie Cochran had Geronimo Pratt’s case, and civil right attorney James Nabrit had Shuttlesworth v. Birnmingham, all of whom created significant judicial precedence and changed legal history. Through his legal prowess and advocacy in the Trayvon Martin case, the Martin Lee Anderson Boot Camp case, and the Robbie Tolan Supreme Court Case, Attorney Benjamin Crump has created a significant legal legacy that ensures that the promise found in our nation’s constitution is indeed real in every state, municipality and neighborhood. His legal acumen as both litigator and advocate has ensured that those most frequently marginalized are protected by their nation’s contract with its constituency. The conspectus of his constitutional battles at both the local, state, and federal levels will be the textbook most frequently referenced by this and future generations of civil rights law in regard to the fundamental protections of our constitutional freedoms.
Benjamin Crump has been recognized as one of The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers, Ebony Magazine Power 100 Most Influential African Americans, and bestowed the NAACP Thurgood Marshall Award and the SCLC Martin Luther King Servant Leader Award. In spite of his immense professional responsibilities, Benjamin Crump still finds time to serve his local community. He readily shares his professional and personal talents with local, statewide and national causes and charities. Mr. Crump was appointed as the inaugural Board Chairman of the Florida’s Big Bend Fair Housing Center, Inc., a Federal Grant organization dedicated to eradication of housing discrimination that operates on a $3,000,000.00 bi-annual budget. He also served as Board Chairman of the Legal Services of North Florida. Attorney Crump donated $1,000,000.00 to the organization’s Capital Campaign to ensure that poor people would continue to have quality legal representation and access to the courts. Attorney Crump believes in fighting to preserve the justice that minorities have achieved throughout the civil rights era and therefore served as Vice President of the National Bar Association and General Counsel to the Tallahassee Chapter of the NAACP. Mr. Crump was elected as the Board Chairman of the Internationally Renowned Tallahassee Boys Choir, and he is the Past President of the National Florida State University Black Alumni Association. Mr. Crump is a Life Member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the NAACP. He is also a member of Sigma Pi Phi Boule and the Michael R. Moore Lodge 764 PHA, Free and Accepted Masons. Furthermore, Attorney Crump and his law partner Daryl Parks share their firm’s largesse with the community that has embraced them–most notably, they have endowed scholarships at Florida A&M University, Livingston College, and Florida State University for minority law students, as well as Bethune Cookman University.
•In 2001, the firm represented Zaniyah Hinson, a case discussed on the Oprah Winfrey Show where a two year old died after being left in a daycare van for four hours in 104 degree temperatures.
•ESPN Sports Center broadcast another case the firm handled which documented Leeronnie Ogletree, a 39 year old who had been sexually molested by the Boston Red Sox Clubhouse manager when he was a ball boy from the age of 8 to 17.
•The case of Genie McMeans, a 21 year old Black motorist who was shoot in the back in broad daylight by a Florida Highway patrol officer on Interstate 10 a week after he graduated from college in 2004.
•In January 2006, Crump relentlessly pursued justice on behalf of the parents of Martin Lee Anderson, the 14 year- old boy who died the day after he was restrained, beaten and suffocated at the Panama City, Bay County juvenile boot camp. The camp’s security cameras captured the incident on videotape. The case was featured on television shows like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s 20/20 and CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360. “The Boot Camp Case” was resolved for the highest amount ever paid by the State for an individual wrongful death in Florida.
•In December 2009, he served as lead attorney of a class of plaintiffs who were fatally and critically injured when the Berkman Plaza Parking Garage collapsed in Jacksonville, Florida.
•Also in 2009, he was co-counsel of a class-action case on behalf of African-American women who sued the St. Joe Company for selling them wetland in Port St. Joe, Florida, which cause their houses to fall apart as they sank into the ground allowing snakes, lizards, and frogs to come though the walls as water pipes cracked. The settlement involved all of the Plaintiffs being able to purchase new homes.
•In 2010, Crump achieved a very critical victory as lead attorney on what has been characterized as a landmark voter’s rights case of this millennium when nine African-American women were arrested with guns drawn for voter fraud in Madison, Florida.
•In 2012, Crump received worldwide acclaim leading the fight for justice as the lead attorney for the family of Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida while walking home with a bag of Skittles and a can of Iced Tea.
•In 2013, Crump helped focus national attention on Kendrick Johnson, a 17 year old teenager found dead a rolled up wrestling mat in a Valdosta, Georgia high school gym under suspicious circumstances. Using his legal prowess, Crump was able to get the US Attorney’s office to launch a federal investigation after the local sheriff had closed the case.
Over the years Mr. Crump has dedicated his areas of practice in serious personal injury, wrongful death, and civil rights matters. Throughout his career he has handled civil litigation matters in state and federal courts throughout the Country. He was the first African-American President of the Federal Bar Association for the Northern District of Florida, first African-American Chairman of the Florida State College of Law Board of Directors, and the first African-American Chair of the Tallahassee Utility Commission. He is a member of the American Bar Association, American Association for Justice, The Florida Justice Association, American Board of Trial Advocates and William Stafford Inns of Court. He was the first African American to serve as Chair of the Florida State University College of Law Board of Directors.
Mr. Crump is a frequent speaker and author, which includes his critically acclaimed article, “The Police Don’t Shoot White Man in the Back; Representing Minorities in Police Brutality Cases.” His work has been featured in documentaries such as BET’s “I am Trayvon Martin: A Family’s fight for Justice,” NPR’s “How Lawyer Got America Talking About Trayvon Martin,” and “Beating Justice: The Martin Lee Anderson Story.” He is a member of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church where he serves on the Board of Trustees. He is married to the lovely, Dr. Genae Angelique Crump, guardian of two adopted cousins, Marcus and Chancellor Crump, and proud father of Brooklyn Zeta Crump.
http://parkscrump.com/attorneys/benjamin-crump/