The Elm is featuring stories on the keynote speaker and three Diversity Recognition Award winners leading up to UMB’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month celebration on Wednesday, Feb. 6, at MSTF Leadership Hall. You can register to attend the event here.

Today: Outstanding UMB Faculty Larry S. Gibson

Larry S. Gibson, LLB, has filled many roles in a lifetime dedicated to advancing equality, justice, and opportunity for African-Americans: law professor, civil rights attorney, political strategist, author, historian, and deputy attorney general of the United States, just to name a few.

But there’s another role that hits home at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, where he teaches: mentor.

“There are countless examples of people who have attributed their success to Professor Gibson,” says Andrew Altshuler, MS, director of alumni engagement in the Office of Development and Alumni Relations at Maryland Carey Law. “He’s always willing to assist students and alumni, no matter their background, in making connections, providing mentorship, and supporting them in any way he can, in a selfless manner, for their betterment.

“As someone who meets with staff and alumni frequently, whenever Professor Gibson’s name comes up in my conversations, it is always in the most positive way,” Altshuler adds. “He has truly impacted many people throughout his career and will continue to do so.”

Gibson founded and organizes the Black Law Alumni Reunion & Symposium, which has been held every five years at Maryland Carey Law since 2003. The most recent symposium, held in September 2018, provided opportunities for former classmates to reconnect and featured an event that honored the founding members of the Black Law Students Association as well as faculty presentations titled “Frederick Douglass’ Escape from Maryland” and “Racial Epithets in the Workplace.”

For his efforts in organizing the symposium, as well as his distinguished career of promoting civil rights and social justice, Gibson earned the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) Diversity Recognition Award as Outstanding UMB Faculty and will be honored at the University’s Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month ceremony Feb. 6.

“Ever since Professor Gibson started at Maryland Law more than four decades ago, promoting equality, justice, and opportunity for all has been one of his main goals,” Altshuler said in his nomination. “The Black Law Alumni Reunion is a celebration of the history of  African-American alumni and law students. It highlights the ability to enact change through legal justice both in the Baltimore community and in the world, providing the ability for all individuals to be treated equal. Attendees of the reunion and other alumni who have had the opportunity to learn from Professor Gibson have greatly benefited from being part of his network.”

The seeds of that vast network were planted in Baltimore, where Gibson grew up, earned his high school diploma from Baltimore City College, and was the school’s first African-American class officer. In 1964, he graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he was the student body president and chair of D.C. Students for Civil Rights. In 1967, he earned his law degree from Columbia University in New York.

In 1972, Gibson became the first African-American law professor at the University of Virginia, and two years later he accepted a faculty position at the University of Maryland School of Law.

He was associate deputy attorney general of the United States under President Jimmy Carter and has run local, state, and national political campaigns, including as Maryland chairman for the Clinton-Gore presidential ticket in 1992.

Gibson’s extensive civic engagement includes serving on the Board of Trustees of the Maryland Historical Trust, as chair of the Commission to Coordinate the Study, Commemoration and Impact of the History and Legacy of Slavery in Maryland, and on the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners. He also has researched, written, and designed numerous exhibits, articles, newspaper serial stories, and other presentations on the history of civil rights and African-American lawyers in Maryland.

Gibson was the principal advocate for the 2005 law passed by the Maryland General Assembly that renamed the regional airport BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. His 2012 book, Young Thurgood: The Making of a Supreme Court Justice, was the first to focus exclusively on Marshall’s formative years in Maryland.

In a 2012 Baltimore Sun article about the book, Gibson’s law partner and best friend, Ron Shapiro, said, “It takes people like Thurgood Marshall to change history by changing the law. And it takes people like Larry Gibson to use activism to implement those changes in the streets and homes and lives of African-Americans.” 

 Learn more about UMB’s Black History Month Celebration and read about all the 2019 Diversity Recognition Award winners.

Over the next two weeks, The Elm will feature stories on the keynote speaker and the three Diversity Recognition Award winners leading up to UMB’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month celebration on Wednesday, Feb. 6, at MSTF Leadership Hall. You can register to attend the event here.

Today: Keynote speaker Angela Alsobrooks, JD ’96

Angela Alsobrooks has blazed an impressive trail in Prince George’s County, Maryland’s second-largest county, initially as its youngest and first female state’s attorney and now as its first female county executive, taking office in December 2018.

Along this pioneering path, Alsobrooks says she has been guided by the ideals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., so it’s fitting that she will be the keynote speaker at the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month celebration on Feb. 6.

Alsobrooks cites King’s 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail” — in which the civil rights leader defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance and famously wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” — as an inspiration for her career in jurisprudence and public service.

“Dr. King dedicated his life to helping others, to doing things that are not always easy or always popular with others,” Alsobrooks says. “I have spent 20-plus years working as a public servant with the hope that I’ll be able to make decisions and create change now that will have an impact on our future generations, just as Dr. King did.”

Alsobrooks is a lifelong resident of Prince George’s County, but her time in Baltimore at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law holds a special place in her heart.

“It is an honor to speak on this great campus,” says Alsobrooks, who earned her undergraduate degree in public policy from Duke University in 1993 and graduated from Maryland Carey Law in 1996. “UMB is one of the places where I received the education that has helped me to achieve what I have so far in my career, and I am honored to be able to give back to the University in any way I can.

“It’s also always an honor to speak at an event honoring Dr. King, and this one is even more special because I am returning to a place that holds great significance and memories for me.”

After earning her law degree, Alsobrooks was hired in 1997 as Prince George’s County’s assistant state’s attorney, with a focus on prosecuting domestic violence cases. She won election in 2010 as state’s attorney, the county’s top prosecutor, and for eight years led the office tasked with prosecuting people accused of committing crimes in the county.

Beyond the courts, Alsobrooks led the fight to reduce domestic and family violence in the county, hosting conferences for children and families and developing training programs for clergy and others who counsel couples and families in crisis. In addition, she created a truancy reduction initiative and started a program designed to give low-level, nonviolent offenders a second chance in the community.

A single mother of a teenage daughter, she also has served as executive director of the Prince George’s County Revenue Authority and as the county’s education liaison, where among her initiatives were educational forums aimed at increasing parental involvement in schools.

“I always knew that I wanted to go into a career of public service,” Alsobrooks says. “I wanted to help others and give a voice to those who might not otherwise have one and ensure that everyone has a seat at the table where decisions that impact their lives are being made.”

In all her work, Alsobrooks maintains a strong commitment to diversity, calling it “one of our greatest strengths.”

“Being able to interact, work with, and learn from those who have different experiences than our own is what allows us to grow as a society,” she says. “When there is diversity and inclusion in anything that we do, it ensures that the needs and desires of all people are taken into account.”

— Lou Cortina

Learn more about UMB’s Black History Month Celebration and read about the 2019 Diversity Recognition Award winners.