Baltimore Airport To Be Renamed In Honor Of Thurgood Marshall

By Sean YoesSpecial to the NNPA from Afro Newspapers BALTIMORE (NNPA) – Emmett Burns Jr., the delegate representing District 10 in Baltimore County, recently said when he dies, he wants his body flown from Thurgood Marshall Baltimore Washington International Airport in Baltimore to Medgar Evers International Airport in his home state of Mississippi. Last week, at least one part of Burns’ vision has come to fruition. On the last day of this year’s legislative session in Annapolis, the Maryland state Senate passed a bill to change Baltimore Washington International Airport to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. The Senate vote was 33-13. The House had previously passed its own version of the legislation, HB 189, which was sponsored by Burns. The final amended version of the House bill passed with a 101-31 vote. ”I’m elated. It was an uphill battle from day one and it was uphill until the Senate voted,” Burns said the day after the vote. Sen. Joan Carter Conway (D-Dist. 43) is co-chair of the Committee on Education, Health and Environmental Affairs, which held final hearings on the bill. And although she acknowledges being ”very happy” about adding Marshall’s name to BWI, she says the battle to make it happen isn’t really over. ”I worked really hard to get the bill out of committee. I wasn’t confident that it was going to happen. Right now, we know that the airport will be renamed, but we don’t have a timetable for when it will happen,” said Conway. ”But when I think about his [Marshall’s] legacy, it’s a tremendous honor,” she said. Yet there are still a couple of issues to contend with, according to Conway. She says the $250,000 that was initially earmarked for the bill was taken out during the legislative process. And it will be up to Gov. Robert Ehrlich — who has gone on record in support of the renaming — to find money to facilitate all elements of the name change, including changing all the signage associated with BWI airport. In addition, the state Board of Public Works, which consists of Ehrlich; William Donald Schaefer, the state’s comptroller; and Nancy Kopp, the state’s treasurer, must ultimately approve the renaming of the airport. Two of the board’s three members must vote in the affirmative, and the general consensus is that the votes are there. ”We’re confident about that — the state’s treasurer, Nancy Kopp, and the governor have pledged their support, and there’s no reason why the comptroller [Schaefer] won’t vote for it,” said Larry S. Gibson, a professor of law at the University of Maryland. Gibson, who played an integral role in pushing the Marshall legislation through the General Assembly, is recognized as one of the nation’s most knowledgeable scholars on Marshall’s life and legacy. ”Here’s the real significance of this,” said Gibson. ”An airport is the state’s gateway to the world. Thousands of people enter Maryland from other parts of the country and the world. A state establishes what it is most proud of in its airport, and what Maryland will be saying by renaming BWI is that it is proud of this native son, Thurgood Marshall. Said Gibson, ”He was the most important constitutional lawyer in the nation’s history, and future generations will be reminded of his contributions.”