(BALTIMORE – October 24, 2023) – Be sure to RSVP for the “Welcome BEYA Back to Baltimore” collabo event between BMORENews.com and STEMCITYUSA.com on Sat., Dec. 9, 2023, 6 to 8 pm, at Unity Hall, 1505 N. Eutaw Street. As always, the event will feature the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards.
RSVP to Blackwallstreetreunion.eventbrite.com.
Recipients of the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Award include Professor Larry S. Gibson, Esquire.
Who is Larry Gibson?
Larry S. Gibson (born March 22, 1942) is a law professor, lawyer, political organizer, and historian. He currently serves as a professor at the Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland, Baltimore; where he has been on the faculty for 38 years. Gibson currently serves as counsel for the firm of Shapiro, Sher, Guinot, and Sandler. He was the principal advocate for the legislation that renamed Maryland’s major airport, the Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, and published Young Thurgood: The Making of a Supreme Court Justice in 2012.
Gibson’s political activism began in 1968, with the organization of Joseph Howard‘s campaign for Judge on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City. He went on to work on the local campaigns of Milton Allen for State’s Attorney, William H. Murphy for judge, Paul Chester for Court Clerk, and Wayne Curry for County Executive. Milton Allen was elected as Baltimore’s first African-American state’s attorney. Gibson was also campaign manager for the Honorable Kurt L. Schmoke for his successful elections in 1987, 1991, and 1995.[6] Schmoke was the first African-American mayor of the City of Baltimore.
Under President Jimmy Carter, Gibson served as Associate Deputy Attorney General of the United States. He served as vice chairman of the National Security Council Working Group on Terrorism and was Director of the National Economic Crimes Project. In 1992, Gibson served as the Maryland State chairman for the Clinton/Gore presidential Campaign. In the 2000s, Gibson started serving as a campaign consultant and political advisor to African political leaders including President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and former President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana.
In 2005, Larry Gibson worked with U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings to appeal to the Maryland State Legislature to rename Baltimore-Washington International Airport after Thurgood Marshall.] House Bill 189 was passed by the Maryland General Assembly later that year.
Awards and memberships
For ten years, Gibson served on the committee of the National Board of Law Examiners which develops the evidence section of the Multi-State Bar Examination. In 2003, Gibson founded and continues to organize the Black Law Alumni Reunion and Symposium for Carey School of Law at University of Maryland. That same year, the Larry S. Gibson Fellowship Endowment was created with the intention of fully endowing the Larry S. Gibson Professorship at Maryland Carey Law.
In 2018, Gibson received the University of Maryland, Baltimore Diversity Recognition Award as Outstanding UMB Faculty for his organization of the Black Law Alumni Reunion and Symposium for that year.] In 2019, the Baltimore Sun announced Gibson as a Business and Civic Hall of Fame honoree. That same year, Gibson was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award for the second time during UMB’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month celebration.
Gibson has served on the board of trustees of the Maryland Historical Trust and the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. He was Chairman of the Commission to Coordinate the Study, Commemoration, and Impact of the History and Legacy of Slavery in Maryland.
