Esteemed civil rights legal professional and Florida State College alumnus Ben Crump of Tallahassee will likely be paying his alma mater a go to as a speaker throughout FSU’s Martin Luther King Jr. Week of Celebration.
Whereas the week will likely be in honor of King’s life and achievements from Monday, Jan. 16 to Friday, Jan. 20, Crump is scheduled to make his look through the college’s Golden Torch Lecture Collection occasion 8 p.m. Tuesday within the Ruby Diamond Live performance Corridor on campus, following MLK Day.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. devoted his life to bettering the lives of others, and we have fun his legacy every year with every week of actions designed to encourage future generations to not solely be taught extra about Dr. King, but additionally about his beliefs and targets,” Sierra Turner, a program director within the Middle for Management & Social Change, stated in a ready assertion. Turner can be one of many MLK Week’s organizers.
As an FSU graduate who earned a bachelor’s diploma in felony justice in addition to a juris physician diploma on the college, Crump went on to change into the founder and president of Tallahassee-based nationwide legislation agency Ben Crump Legislation in 2017. The brand new institution got here a number of years after his function as companion within the co-founded private damage agency Parks & Crump with legal professional Daryl Parks.
Crump can be recognized for representing households in nationally acknowledged civil rights circumstances of Black victims that embody Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd as he continued to advocate for social justice.
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Apart from the authorized world that Crump takes up a major quantity of area in, a Netflix documentary referred to as “Civil: Ben Crump” adopted a yr within the lifetime of “Black America’s legal professional common.” The movie debuted on Juneteenth of final yr.
As FSU celebrates King all through the week, the festivities had an early starting Friday with a screening of the documentary on the Askew Scholar Life Cinema on campus.
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A take a look at Crump’s civil rights efforts all through his profession together with the accomplishments of King all through his life reveal Crump’s relevance to FSU’s MLK Week because the chosen speaker for the Tuesday occasion.
The Golden Torch Lecture Collection — sponsored by FSU’s Scholar Authorities Affiliation and Membership Downunder Union Productions — offers the college’s college students with audio system who’re working on the forefront of right now’s political or social points. A part of the collection’ mission is to interact college students in “dialogue that may positively profit their total educational, scholastic or humanitarian expertise.”
The overarching theme of the MLK Week of Celebration for this yr, is “It Begins with Us: Advocating for Entry in Greater Schooling and Society.”
Different occasions through the week embody Monday’s Nationwide Day of Service with EngageTLH, Thursday’s panel that may focus on first technology and imposter syndrome within the college setting and Friday’s combination amongst Black school, employees and graduate college students.
Whereas Tuesday’s lecture with Crump begins at 8 p.m., doorways open at 7 p.m. The occasion is free and open to the general public, however tickets are nonetheless required and might be reserved by the college’s Advantageous Arts Ticket Workplace website.
Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or comply with her on twitter @tarahjean_.
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