Good News: Civil rights attorney Ben Crump to speak at Jan. 14 MLK luncheon; tickets on sale

     Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump - who has become a national figure representing the families of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and others - will be the keynote speaker at Metropolitan Community College’s 2022 Chancellor’s Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Luncheon.
     Crump will speak in-person at the event, which is set for 11:30 a.m. Friday, Jan. 14, at the new Loews Kansas City Hotel, 1515 Wyandotte St. downtown.
     Individual tickets are $125, with a variety of sponsorship levels available. Purchase tickets online at mcckc.edu/mlkluncheon. The luncheon raises money for student scholarships, and five MCC students will be presented with MLK scholarships (a full year of tuition) at the event.
McCownGordon Construction is presenting sponsor of the 2022 luncheon. The 2021 MLK event was virtual, with the New York Times Magazine’s Nikole Hannah-Jones as speaker.
     Crump, based in Florida, is the founder and principal owner of Ben Crump Law. In less than a decade, he has become the voice for families of "Black people whose deaths at the hands of police and vigilantes sparked a movement," as an Associated Press story described him earlier this year. Social justice activist the Rev. Al Sharpton calls Crump "Black America’s attorney general."
     Crump was named to the 2021 Time100 List of most influential people, which noted his advocacy on behalf of George Floyd, killed by Minneapolis police in 2020. Gwen Carr, whose son Eric Garner was killed by a New York police officer, wrote in Time that the guilty verdict for former officer Derek Chauvin in Floyd’s case created "a flicker of hope that the change that both the world and grieving families were calling for might be possible on a wider scale."
     Crump is also the author of "Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People," published in 2019. Luncheon attendees will receive a copy of the book.
     Learn more about MCC’s 2022 MLK event by visiting mcckc.edu/mlkluncheon, emailing [email protected] or calling 816.604.1195.