Dressed in an orange and green Florida A&M sweatshirt, red, black and white basketball shorts and a pair of sneakers, local attorney Daryl Parks looks like he’s headed to a FAMU football game.
But Parks is not headed to a game; he’s in his law office looking through papers that are spread out over the 6-foot-long mahogany colored wood table he is sitting at.
“He bleeds orange and green,” said Benjamin Crump, Parks’ partner.
Crump said Parks is known for his compassion, community service and devotion to FAMU, and is an exceptional person, who has a tremendous ability to multitask.
Parks, who was chosen to be the National Bar Association’s president-elect during the 85th annual convention held in New Orleans in August, will be sworn in as president at the 2011 convention.
The NBA represents a professional network of over 20,000 lawyers, judges, educators and law students. It is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of predominantly African American lawyers and judges. Parks is the seventh attorney from Florida to serve as president-elect.
Crump said he and Parks met while he was the president of the Black Student Union at Florida State University, and Parks was the Student Government Association president at FAMU in 1989. He said they became best friends when they entered FSU’s law school in1992. They both decided they were in law school for a purpose, Crump said, and they wanted to make a difference in the community.
“I think being in SGA really helped develop my ability to lead and interact with people,” said Parks.
He was the first SGA president in FAMU’s history, to serve two consecutive terms.
Parks said while they were SGA and BSU presidents, he and Crump joined together a couple of times renting The Moon to have a big party to bring together FAMU and FSU students. The parties were free to anyone with an ID card form either school.
Darryl Jones, the executive director of Bethel Community Development Corporation, said he and Parks have been best friends for almost 30 years. They met in 1988, while in college, and were also roommates for two years.
“I was little Darryl, and he was big Daryl,” said Jones jokingly. “I was the sophisticated one, and he was country.”
Jones said Parks came from humble beginnings, which helped create the man he has become today.