Larry S. Gibson grew up in Baltimore and earned his high school diploma from Baltimore City College, where he was the first African American class officer. From 1960 to 1964, he attended Howard University in Washington D.C., where he was the student body president, the chairperson of D.C. Students for Civil Rights, and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. In 1967, he earned his law degree from Columbia University in New York City.
In 1972, Professor Gibson became the first African American law professor at the University of Virginia. Two years later, he accepted a faculty position at the University of Maryland School of Law, where he continues to teach Evidence, Civil Procedure, Race and the Law, and Election Law.
Professor Gibson has researched and designed several exhibits, articles, newspaper series, and other presentations on the history of civil rights and African American lawyers in Maryland. Professor Gibson was the principal advocate for the law passed by the Maryland General Assembly that renamed the BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport.
Professor Gibson is on the board of trustees of the Maryland Historical Trust and is on the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. He is chairman of the Commission to Coordinate the Study, Commemoration, and Impact of the History and Legacy of Slavery in Maryland. He has also served six years on the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners.
Professor Gibson has directed local, state, and national political campaigns since 1968. During the administration of President Jimmy Carter, he served in the U.S. Justice Department as associate deputy attorney general and as director of the National Economic Crimes Project. In 1992, he was Maryland state chairman of the Clinton/Gore presidential campaign.
Since 2001, Professor Gibson has served as a campaign consultant and political advisor to African political leaders, including Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia and Marc Ravalomanana the former president of Madagascar.
In the course of business and pleasure, Professor Gibson has visited more than 65 countries in the world.