Oberlin College pays $36 million to bakery branded racist

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Oberlin College paid out the $36 million owed to a local bakery after the Ohio Progressive School falsely accused the family business of being racist.

The substantial payment was awarded earlier this year after Gibsons Bakery won a libel suit against the school which sided with three black students who claimed the store had racially profiled them when they were caught stealing from the store in November 2016.

“We can confirm that all funds have been disbursed and the family is continuing the process of rebuilding Gibsons Bakery for future generations,” Gibson family attorney Brandon McHugh told 3News on Thursday.

It’s definitely a matter of right and wrong. And to be quite frank, the three students who shoplifted, they admitted to their crimes, adds McHugh. It was Oberlin College that could never admit that what they had done was wrong.

The 137-year-old bakery plans to use the money to rebuild the store, which lost a considerable amount of business after accusations of racism and the Covid-19 pandemic hit simultaneously.

“I would replace the compressors in the refrigerators and replace the fryers and the proofers that we use for our dough. I would pay off the mortgages on my properties that I have taken out over the past few years. I will rehire employees and increase production,” Lorna Gibson wrote in a September article for The Post.

Gibson’s Bakery sued Oberlin College for libel in 2017, a year after the shoplifting incident where one of the students used a fake ID to try to buy a bottle of wine, while slipping two other bottles, according to court documents.

Gibson’s son Allyn chased the trio – Jonathan Aladdin, Endia Lawrence and Cecelia Whettstone – out of the store, where a fight ensued. When the police arrived, the students alleged that Allyn had racially profiled and assaulted them.

Protesters picketed outside the business after the three thieves claimed they had been racially profiled.Chronicle-Telegram/Bruce Bishop

An Oberlin College staff member created and distributed flyers claiming the family had a ‘LONG ACCOUNT of RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION’ and urged shoppers to boycott the store. School protesters, students and teachers, picketed the Ohio Bakery.

The family lost a substantial amount of business over the allegations, Gibson said, even after the students admitted in 2017 that they had not been racially profiled. They pleaded guilty to attempted robbery.

The Gibsons decided to sue the college because family patriarch Allyn Sr., 89, “who had dedicated his life to the business, didn’t want to die being falsely labeled a racist,” Gibson said. Allyn passed away earlier this year.

The family sued the school because Allyn Sr., here with his son David, said he didn’t want to die being called a racist. Facebook/Gibson’s Bakery

Oberlin College was fined $11million for defamation in 2019 after it discovered the university defamed the bakery when the staffer made the flyers, but the school has tried to appeal the case. decision. In September, the Ohio Supreme Court rejected Oberlins’ bid to hear his appeal and ordered him to pay the Gibsons more than $36 million.

“It’s definitely a matter of right and wrong. And to be completely candid, the three students who shoplifted have admitted to their crimes,” McHugh said Thursday. “It was Oberlin College that could never admit what they did was wrong.”

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