Larry S. Gibson
MSA SC 3520-15252
Biography:
Born March 22, 1942, in Washington, D.C. Graduated from Baltimore City College, 1960; Howard University, 1964; Columbia University Law School, 1967.
Married Diana Lewis (1940-2023), July 7, 1973. One child, Steven Larry Gibson.
Served on Baltimore City School Board 1968-1974. Professor, University of Virginia Law School, 1972-1974; first African American professor at the law school. Professor, University of Maryland Law School, 1977-present. Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Jimmy Carter, 1977-1978.
Attorney in private practice, 1967-present. Early clients included students arrested for protesting segregated businesses, the Congress of Racial Equality, and Charles Wyche, a member of the Black Panther Party acquitted of murder in 1971; at the trial, the Baltimore Afro American said "Mr. Gibson had jurors hanging on his every word. The audience, policemen, judge and the clerks seemed entranced."
Campaign manager for many successful and ground-breaking candidates, including Joseph Howard for judge of Supreme Bench of Baltimore City, 1968, the first African American judge in the city and the first African American to win a city-wide race; Milton Allen, state’s attorney, Baltimore City, the first African American to win that position; Parren Mitchell, 1968 and 1970, who elected to Congress in 1970 as first African American member of Congress from Maryland; Kurt Schmoke, mayor of Baltimore, 1987, 1991, 1995; Bill Clinton, Maryland campaign manager, 1992; Wayne Curry, Prince George’s County executive, 1994 and 1998; Parris Glendening, governor, 1994. Gibson also managed campaigns for leaders in Ghana, Madagascar, and Liberia, including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, president of Liberia, 2005. She was the first woman elected president in Africa, and later received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. Gibson was aided on some of these campaigns by his wife, Diana.
Gibson has long been involved in civil rights activism, as early as 1964, when he organized a demonstration in support of the passage of the Voting Rights; he received a thank you letter from President Lyndon Johnson. He is also a historian of the civil rights movement. He was the author in 2012 of Young Thurgood, a detailed biography studying Thurgood Marshall’s early years in Maryland. He also lead the campaign to rename Baltimore-Washington International Airport of Marshall.
In 2023, Gibson received the First Citizen Award from the Maryland Senate.
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