\u201cIt was an honor to accept the Justice Icon trophy in the company of so many Black leaders in our community,\u201d Crump remarked.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cThis award represents our fight for tomorrow\u2019s future \u2013 our children\u2019s future,\u201d he asserted. \u201cWe will never stop demanding equality and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those words were just a sample of Crump\u2019s four-minute acceptance speech that brought the crowd of dignitaries to its feet and prompted LaBelle to remark, \u201cBen, you sure talking truth, and we all were listening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crump, who has represented the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and others, said if Black America doesn\u2019t fight for its children\u2019s future, they couldn\u2019t expect anyone else to go to battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have to be willing to fight for our children\u2019s future until hell freezes over, and then, we have to be ready to fight on the ice,\u201d Crump demanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have to make sure our children believe Black lives matter, where it can\u2019t be lip service, it has to be action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crump also recalled the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDr. King concluded that there comes a time when one must take a position that\u2019s neither popular nor politically correct or not even safe,\u201d Crump told the audience, who loudly cheered their affirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut that being said, there comes a time when we must take a position because their conscience tells them it is the right thing to do. I submit to you at the first annual TheGrio Awards that it is the right thing to do to stand up for our children\u2019s future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Broadcast on Nov. 26, the awards celebrated excellence in film, music, comedy, television, sports, philanthropy, business, fashion, social justice, environmental justice, education, and the cultural icons and innovators whose many contributions positively impact America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taped at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles, Allen designed the star-studded, black-tie event special to pay tribute to and amplify the history makers, change agents, and artists who define and influence the Black world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI created \u2018theGrio Awards\u2019 to celebrate and amplify African American excellence and the incredible champions from other communities who truly support us,\u201d Allen said in a release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a child, strong, positive African American icons such as Berry Gordy, Jr., Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, and Martin Luther King, Jr. helped me see myself differently and changed the trajectory of my life. Celebrating and amplifying iconic individuals is something we can never do enough of, especially for our children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Byron Allen\u2019s inaugural TheGrio Awards honored comedian Dave Chappelle with the Cultural Icon Award, Allyson Felix with the Sports Icon Award, and Patti LaBelle with the Music Icon Award. And while trailblazers like Tyler Perry and Jennifer Hudson also received honors, the recently televised awards spotlighted the work of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Black Attorney General.\u201d Ben Crump, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1351,1353,1352],"class_list":["post-2236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ben-crump","tag-byron-allen","tag-thegrio-awards","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions\/2238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}