Who Is Ben Crump? A Closer Look at the Celebrated US Civil Rights Attorney Retained by Ghana Over Diaspora Killings
Following an announcement by Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa that the Government of Ghana has approved the engagement of American civil rights attorney Benjamin Lloyd Crump to pursue justice for Ghanaian citizens killed in the United States, intense public interest has turned toward the legal powerhouse tapped to lead the effort.
According to Minister Ablakwa, Ghana’s Permanent Mission in New York has been authorized to retain Crump’s legal services at no cost to the Ghanaian taxpayer, reinforcing diplomatic interventions aimed at securing accountability for grieving families in the diaspora—including the families of recent victims such as Javits Frimpong and doctoral graduate Akpene Diamond Tetteh.
Widely celebrated across the United States as a “voice for the voiceless” and frequently referred to as “Black America’s attorney general,” Ben Crump has built a formidable reputation specializing in civil rights litigation, wrongful death claims, and high-profile personal injury cases. Over the past decade, he has stood at the forefront of America’s most consequential racial justice battles, representing families whose losses sparked nationwide protests and legislative reforms.
Crump rose to global prominence for representing the family of George Floyd, the African-American man who died in May 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck, securing a landmark $27 million civil settlement. That same year, he represented the family of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot during a police raid in Louisville, Kentucky, obtaining a $12 million wrongful death settlement. His extensive legal portfolio also includes representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, Tyre Nichols, Stephon Clark, Keenan Anderson, and Sonya Massey, alongside nine of the thirteen victims in the 2015 Oklahoma City police sexual assault case involving former officer Daniel Holtzclaw, as well as a 2008 United States Supreme Court excessive-force case involving Robbie Tolan.
Beyond cases of law enforcement violence, Crump has delivered major legal victories in environmental justice, corporate accountability, and systemic discrimination. He played a pivotal role in securing a $641 million settlement for children impacted by the contaminated water crisis in Flint, Michigan, represented the family of Henrietta Lacks in a historic legal battle over the unauthorized use of her cellular tissue, won a $411 million verdict for truck accident victim Duane Washington, and negotiated over $200 million in settlements addressing racial discrimination in the banking industry.
His decades of advocacy have earned him historic honors across the legal and civic landscape. Named among TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2021 and included on Forbes’ inaugural list of America’s Top 200 Lawyers in 2024, Crump has received the NAACP Image Awards’ Social Impact Award, the NAACP Thurgood Marshall Award, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Martin Luther King Servant Leader Award, the American Association for Justice’s Johnnie Cochran Award, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Eleanor Roosevelt Medallion for Service. In 2023, St. Thomas University in Florida renamed its law school the Benjamin L. Crump College of Law in his honor, making it the only law school in the United States named after a currently practicing African-American lawyer.
By bringing Crump’s legal expertise and advocacy clout into its diplomatic push, the Ghanaian government aims to ensure that investigations into the deaths of its citizens in the United States are transparent, thorough, and culminate in full legal accountability.
Source: Thepressradio.com
