Civil Rights attorney Benjamin Crump accepted the Social Justice Impact Award Saturday night (Feb. 25) at the 54th Annual NAACP Awards for his efforts in protecting the rights of people on the federal, state and local levels.

“I accept this award as greater motivation to continue to be [an] unapolgetic defender of Black life, Black liberty and Black humanity,” said Crump, 53. “I promise I will use this Social Justice Award as greater incentive to fight against the legalized genocide of colored people and vow never to stop fighting racism and discrimination when it rears its ugly head.”

He also remarked on the attempts to block the uncensored teaching of Black history in Florida, where his practice is located, and where he has gotten involved in the fight and has threatened to sue Gov. Ron DeSantis over his policy regarding the teaching of AP African American history courses.

“I will continue to fight in the court of law, in the court of public opinion,” Crump said. “And now that they’re trying to ban our most celebrated Black authors in AP African American studies, we must advocate for our children and our culture in the classrooms and demand that they acknowledge that the teaching of Black history matters!”

A longtime advocate for families who have lost loved ones as a result of police violence, he is often called “Black America’s Attorney General” because of the voice he has lent in representing those who had no way of representing themselves.

In 2012, Crump represented the family of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Miami teen who was shot and killed in a conflict with a George Zimmerman, a self-described neighborhood watch chief, of a subdivisions in Sanford, Fla., where his father lived. The case garnered international attention and placed Crump squarely at the center of the modern Civil Rights movement. He began representing several other families in similar fashion including those of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Mo.; Eric Garner in New York; Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, Okla., Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.; and George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Founding Ben Crump Law PLLC in 2017, he continued to champion the cause of justice for unarmed people who were injured or killed as a result of their interactions with law enforcement. His most recent high-profile clients are the family of Tyre Nichols, who died after being severely beaten by a group of officers in Memphis.

He is the founder and director of the nonprofit Ben Crump Social Justice Institute, based in suburban Minneapolis, which aims to create opportunities for all voices to be heard by ensuring the fair application of laws and promotion of protecting individual rights.

A 1992 graduate of Florida State University, he earned his juris doctor in 1995 from FSU College of Law. He is a life member of the National Bar Association and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity.

The NAACP Social Impact Award recognizes people who impact civil and social justice. Crump follows journalist Nikole Hannah Jones, who won in 2022 and politician and voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, who won in 2021.

Crump pledged to keep up the fight that so many historical figures have fought before him and urged everyone to fight for their children’s future.

“We have to be prepared to fight for our children’s future until hell freezes over,” he said. “And then we have to be ready to fight on the ice..