How Ben Crump became America’s go-to civil rights lawyer

While a criminal conviction eluded the Martin family, Crump helped them reach a seven-figure settlement with Zimmerman’s homeowners association. That case had all the Crump hallmarks – dramatic press conferences, media scrums, marches, protests and powerful rhetoric. “Ben did a masterful job of keeping that in the public view,” Mark O’Mara, who represented Zimmerman, told USA Today last year. “I was fighting for a client. Ben was fighting for a cause.”