Gary Simpson was a human rights lawyer who made his services available to UM political activists.

A long-time member of the ACLU, Gary won many awards for his work in race and sex discrimination cases. His law partner Alvin McIntyre Ehrlich had this to say about him:

"Gary was the man to see if you had a problem, and when you saw him you got his mind, full force. But along with that you got his heart, and-as enormous as his intellect was-his heart was even more prodigious."

Gary Simpson passed away in October 2001.

Original Comments

• Gary was our Clarence Darrow. He was my lawyer after I got busted for protesting at a George Wallace rally. Even though I only could pay him a $100, he defended me as if he were in front of the Supreme Court of the United States. When I was doing draft counseling, Gary was on our list of approved attorneys. He always stood up for us little guys and gals, win or lose.— Anonymous

• In the early 70s the cops showed up at my door one night about 1 am. I asked them if they had a warrant and they said no. I told them to go away. They said they were going to break down the door (and I believed them), so I opened it and they rushed in.
  
  I started raising hell about how they didn’t have a search warrant and I wasn’t saying shit to them, so they left the apartment, but arrested me for conspiracy.
  
  They gave me my phone call and I called Gary Simpson and told him what happened. The cops then took me back into a room and tried to question me. I wouldn’t tell them shit (probably a dumb idea in retrospect since I hadn’t done anything). I was cuffed, sitting down with my hands behind a chair. The cop jumped up on the table in front of me and threatened to jump on me if I didn’t talk.
  
  Meanwhile, Gary called back to the jail and they said they didn’t have anyone by my name. He called the P.G. County Executive at home (this was about 2:30 am in the morning) and raised hell that the cops were holding his prisoner incommunicado. The County Exec called to the jail and told them to produce me. They did.
  
  I met briefly with Gary about 3:00 am in the morning. After questioning me and finding out I hadn’t done anything, he recommended I consent to a search of the apartment and I did.
  
  Once I consented, the cops figured I didn’t have anything and didn’t bother to search the place. They put me back in a cell at Hyattsville, transferred me to Upper Marlboro in the morning, took me before a judge and dropped the charges.
  
  Gary did a great job and really impressed the jail personnel since he’d gotten the County Exec to call them at 2:30 in the morning. I was even more impressed that he got out of his bed and met me at the jail at 3:00 am.
  
  A lot of us miss Gary and his unrelenting quest for justice. — Anonymous