Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a small town used to big-time trouble. Just over the Illinois border, it was where Al Capone and his men would hide from Chicago police chases at a time when the police could not cross state lines.
Wisconsin itself has a history of racism dating back to its time as a territory; it is a state that once let non-citizen newcomers vote before it allowed black men near the ballot box. Last month, seven shots in the back of an unarmed black man brought world attention to Kenosha. Into this cloud of infamy, walked in the biggest of the big-gun civil rights lawyers of the day.
At 50, attorney Ben Crump is an imposing figure. Tall, and at once soft-spoken and forceful with his words, he projects kindness, compassion and a deep desire for justice. He is a handsome black man with a velvet quality; reassuringly flawless in his dress and perfect skin, he has perfected the art of putting legalistic language into words everyday folk can relate to. In doing so, he commands a presence that comforts and stabilises emotionally charged situations.
He is everything families dream of —a law graduate from Florida State University, a recipient of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Thurgood Marshall Award, recipient of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Martin Luther King Servant Leader Award, one of the National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100 Lawyers, and Ebony magazine’s Power 100 Most Influential African Americans.
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