Civil Rights Attorney Benjamin Crump to be keynote speaker at MLK Jr. Day celebration

Benjamin Crump, “Black America’s Attorney General,” will join Earlham College, Indiana University East, and the Richmond, Indiana, chapter of the NAACP to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr. 

A renowned civil rights and personal injury lawyer, Crump will reflect on King’s legacy as part of an online event at 7 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 16. Womai Song, Earlham College assistant professor of African and African American Studies, will facilitate the conversation. 

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is now available on Eventbrite. 

This is the first in a series of events commemorating Earlham’s 175th anniversary in 2022.

Crump has worked on some of the nation’s most high-profile cases at the center of the Black Lives Matter Movement. He has represented the families of George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in 2020; Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida, in 2012; Michael Brown, who was killed by a law enforcement officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014; and Stephon Clark, who was killed by police officers in Sacramento, California, in 2018.  

Crump also represented residents of Flint, Michigan, who were affected by water contaminated by high amounts of lead. He represented nine of the 13 black women who were victims in the Holtzclaw Oklahoma City Police sexual assault case in 2015. Additionally, he worked on the precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court case involving excessive police force against Robbie Tolan in 2008. 

“Benjamin Crump’s unwavering commitment to social justice activism is a reminder of our responsibilities as individuals in fighting for a more just, safe, and free society for all in 21st century United States,” Song said. “In the context of the challenges that we continue to face as a nation, I am exhilarated to join this extraordinary man in what promises to be a thought-provoking conversation in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.” 

Crump is the president of the National Civil Rights Trial Lawyers Association and previously served as president of the National Bar Association. He was the first African-American to chair the Florida State University College of Law Board of Directors and currently serves on the Innocence Project Board of Directors. He is the founder and director of the Benjamin Crump Social Justice Institute. 

He has been recognized with the NAACP Thurgood Marshall Award, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Martin Luther King Servant Leader Award, the American Association for Justice Johnnie Cochran Award, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Eleanor Roosevelt Medallion for Service. 

For more information on this event, please contact Yemi Mahoney, IU East’s chief diversity officer and special assistant to the chancellor, at [email protected] or 765-973-8474.