Civil rights attorney Ben Crump urges Biden to nominate Jackson to Supreme Court

He highlighted Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's experience as a public defender.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump publicly urged President Joe Biden to tap Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court on Wednesday, as the president closes in on a decision for his first nomination to the high court.

"In my view, that of a civil rights lawyer and advocate who is committed to bringing justice, respect, and fairness to this nation, and particularly to my community, that woman is Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson," Crump said in a statement, provided first to ABC News.

The endorsement -- the first from a high-profile Black civil rights advocate -- is a significant boost for Jackson after African American community leaders have spent weeks largely remaining neutral on the pick.

Over the past decade, Crump has represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Jacob Blake, Daunte Wright -- Black Americans whose deaths at the hands of police sparked outrage and calls for justice. Crump joined the Floyd family for a meeting with the president at the White House last April, on the first anniversary of George Floyd's death.