The Breakfast Club INTERVIEW: Ben Crump Talks 'Worse Than A Lie,' Black Community Missions, ICE Incidents, Boosie Badazz, Trump Administration, Jessie Jackson
Feb 27, 2026
A legal thriller author discusses using fiction to illuminate courtroom realities and create a Black trial-lawyer hero. Conversations touch on environmental-racism work after wildfires and delays from federal agencies. Economic empowerment and strategies to grow Black businesses get a spotlight. Civil liberties, ICE practices, online misinformation, and building a new generation of civil rights lawyers are also explored.
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Be Intentional With Dollars To Build Black Wealth
- Invest in Black communities by intentionally spending with Black-owned businesses and professionals.
- Ben Crump lists concrete targets like dedicating weekly or monthly purchases to Black dentists, insurance agents, restaurants, and bookstores to keep dollars circulating.
Dollar Retention Shapes Community Power
- Money circulates at different speeds across communities, and Black dollars leave fastest which weakens local economic power.
- Crump contrasts Asian (21 days) and Jewish (17 days) dollar-retention with Black dollars staying '17 minutes' to highlight the problem.
Why He Wrote A Black Superhero Trial Lawyer
- Crump explains he chose fiction to create a black superhero trial lawyer because existing legal heroes didn't reflect Black culture.
- He cites Thurgood Marshall inspiring him to make legal procedure engaging and name his protagonist Bo Lee Cooper as a Perry Mason–style figure.
