From George Floyd to Breonna Taylor: Profile of US lawyer hired by Ghana government

The Government of Ghana, through Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, on November 12, 2026, announced that it had engaged prominent American civil rights lawyer Ben Crump to help pursue justice for Ghanaians killed in the United States in recent months.

In an update on the killings on November 10, 2026, Ablakwa said approval had been granted to Ghana’s Permanent Mission in New York to engage Crump’s services at no cost to the Ghanaian taxpayer.

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According to the minister, the decision is intended to support Ghana’s efforts to secure justice for the victims and their families.

But who is Ben Crump?

As a civil rights lawyer, Benjamin Lloyd Crump has built a reputation in the United States (US) for representing families seeking justice in cases involving police violence and other alleged injustices.

Crump specialises in civil rights and personal injury cases. He has represented the families of several high-profile victims, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, whose deaths sparked widespread protests against police brutality in the US.

His work has earned him the description of a “voice for the voiceless” and the title “Black America's attorney general”.

One of Crump's most widely known cases involved George Floyd, an African-American man who died in May 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

Crump represented Floyd's family in their pursuit of justice. The case attracted international attention and triggered protests across the US and other parts of the world.

He also represented the family of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by police officers during a raid at her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in March 2020.

Other notable cases he has handled include those involving Trayvon Martin, who was killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer in Florida in 2012, and Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

His firm has also represented the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Tyre Nichols, Stephon Clark, Keenan Anderson and Sonya Massey, among other victims of fatal incidents involving law enforcement officers.

In 2015, Crump represented nine of the 13 Black women who were victims in the Oklahoma City police rape case involving former officer Daniel Holtzclaw.

He also worked on a United States Supreme Court case involving allegations of excessive police force against Robbie Tolan in 2008.

Beyond police-related cases, Crump has represented residents of Flint, Michigan, who were affected by contaminated drinking water. He also represented the family of Henrietta Lacks in a landmark case involving the use of her cells without proper consent.

Crump has secured several major financial settlements and verdicts for clients in cases involving civil rights violations and personal injury.

Among them was a $27 million settlement for George Floyd's family and a $12 million settlement for Breonna Taylor's family.

He also helped secure a $641 million settlement for children affected by the Flint water crisis.

In another case, he secured a $411 million verdict for Duane Washington, who suffered serious injuries in a truck accident.

His work has also included securing more than $200 million in settlements in cases involving allegations of racial discrimination in banking, commonly described as 'banking while Black'.

Crump's work has earned him several recognitions in the US.

In 2021, he was named among TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World. He has also featured on Ebony magazine's Power 100 list of influential African-Americans and the National Trial Lawyers' Top 100 Lawyers list.

In 2023, he received the Social Impact Award at the NAACP Image Awards.

That same year, St Thomas University in Florida renamed its College of Law the Benjamin L. Crump College of Law in his honour.

The institution is the only law school in the US named after a currently practising African-American lawyer and the second in the country to be named after an African-American.

In 2024, Crump was included in Forbes magazine's inaugural list of America's Top 200 Lawyers, becoming one of seven Black lawyers featured.

Other honours he has received include 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.

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He was also named the 2014 National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Newsmaker of the Year.

Crump's legal work has largely focused on representing individuals and families seeking justice and compensation in cases involving civil rights violations, police violence and other forms of alleged injustice.

MAG/BAI

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