[1] Crenshaw received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1978 from Vanderbilt University.

He received a Juris Doctor in 1981 from Vanderbilt University Law School.

From 1981 to 1982, he served as a law clerk to the Judges of the Chancery and Probate Court of Davidson County, Tennessee.

[2][3][4][5] On February 4, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Crenshaw to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, to the seat vacated by Judge William Joseph Haynes Jr., who assumed senior status on December 1, 2014.

[5] At the time of his confirmation, Crenshaw was only the second African-American federal judge on active status in Tennessee.