Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People

Written by Ben Crump

Narrated by Korey Jackson

The president of the National Bar Association and one of the most distinguished civil rights attorneys working today reflects on the landmark cases he has battled—including representing Trayvon Martin’s family—and offers a disturbing look at how the justice system is used to promote injustice in this memoir and clarion call as shocking and important as the bestsellers Just Mercy and Slavery by Another Name and Ava DuVernay’s film 13th.

Benjamin Crump firmly believes in the Constitution and its legal protections—that civil rights legislation covers all Americans, not just those privileged by race, wealth, or pedigree. A fierce and passionate advocate, he has devoted his career to fighting for justice for America’s marginalized. Open Season is his inspiring journey working on some of the most egregious cases that have shocked the nation, including those of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown.

Shaped by his first-hand experience handling civil litigation matters in state and federal courts throughout the country, Open Season reveals the often hidden and systemic injustices minorities face, and illuminates how discrimination in the courthouse devastates real families and communities. Chronicling some of his most memorable legal battles, this brilliant litigator shockingly makes clear how our system is devised for certain people to lose and others to win, and, using evidence and facts, exposes how it is legal to harm—with the intent to destroy—people of color.

Crump offers a cogent analysis of legal tenets, including the 13th Amendment, the 1951 Genocide Petition to the United Nations, and controversial Stand Your Ground laws. He compares how race detrimentally influences sentencing, and reveals how police unions protect officers who shoot unarmed civilians. He also makes clear how budget cuts for education, the proliferation of guns, and high unemployment rates all directly contribute to higher crime rates.

America must live up to its promise to protect the rights of its citizens equally, Crump maintains. Thoughtful, well-reasoned, and powerfully persuasive, Open Season details one man's life mission preserving the hard-won justice for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780062697905

Ben Crump

Through a steadfast dedication to justice and service, renowned civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump has established himself as one of the nation’s foremost lawyers and advocates for social justice. He has worked on some of the most high-profile cases in the U.S., representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Stephon Clark, among others. He has been nationally recognized as the 2014 NNPA Newsmaker of the Year, the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Lawyers, and Ebony Magazine Power 100 Most Influential African Americans. In 2016, he was designated as an Honorary Fellow by the University of Pennsylvania College of Law. He is the founder and principal owner of Ben Crump Law.

Reviews for Open Season

[Andrew Farnsworth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A chilling look at the black experience in America. If you want to know the anger that drives the Black Lives Matters movement go no further than this book.

[Nashwa Shakeel · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Ben Crump, the author of this book is an attorney and now presenting George Floyd’s family in court. And this book was eye-opening and extremely engaging. Crump tells us case by case why the killing of black people in the US is a modern day genocide. Just because they’re not being killed in large numbers, it doesn’t mean it’s less of a genocide. He talks about all the ways the system is designed to protect white people and criminalise black people. There are so many examples in this book where white shooters are arrested without being harmed and black kids are killed for wearing a hoodie. He talks about modern day segregation, environmental racism, voter suppression and all the ways black and brown people are kept in oppression. As someone who loves history, this was brilliant but I feel like if you’re American, you’d benefit a lot from this book. Listened to this as an audiobook and the narrator did a wonderful job!