- Henry Louis Gates Jr. mulls moving over death threats
Calls Crowley 'a nice guy': "You should die; you're a racist," read one e-mail that Gates recalled in his first public appearance since
sharing a beer at the White House with President Obama and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested him
July 16. The threats forced Gates to change his e-mail address and cell phone number.... -
Boston Herald, 8-2-09
- Black scholar says he's able to joke about arrest:
Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Sunday joked about his arrest by a white police officer, but
also described receiving death threats and dreaming about being arrested at the White House.
In his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House on Thursday with the officer and
President Barack Obama, Gates said the national debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that
issues of class and race still run"profoundly deep" in the United States.
"They have not been resolved at all," he said, speaking to a crowd of more than 150 who came to see him at the Martha's
Vineyard Book Festival.... -
AP, 8-2-09 - Analysis: Obama must regain momentum after Gates:
The success of President Barack Obama's ambitious agenda — from health care and climate change to education —
could depend on how quickly he recovers from the sharp drop in support among white voters after criticizing
a white policeman's arrest of a black Harvard scholar.... -
AP, 8-1-09
- Statement of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. after meeting with Sergeant James Crowley at the White House:
Sergeant Crowley and I, through an accident of time and place, have been cast together, inextricably, as
characters – as metaphors, really – in a thousand narratives about race over which he and I have absolutely no
control. Narratives about race are as old as the founding of this great Republic itself, but these new ones have
unfolded precisely when Americans signaled to the world our country’s great progress by overcoming centuries of
habit and fear, and electing an African American as President. It is incumbent upon Sergeant Crowley and me to
utilize the great opportunity that fate has given us to foster greater sympathy among the American public for
the daily perils of policing on the one hand, and for the genuine fears of racial profiling on the other hand.
-
Henry Louis Gates in the Boston Globe (7-31-09)
- The Onion satirizes Henry Louis Gates controversy -
The Onion (7-31-09)
- Gates sends flowers, note to woman who called 911:
Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has sent flowers and a note to the woman who unwittingly sparked a national
debate on race by calling police to report what she thought might be a break-in at Gates' home.... -
AP, 7-31-09
- Poll: Obama mishandled comments on race -
AP, 7-30-09
- Obama's Handling of Gates Flap Seems To Have Hurt Public Image, Poll Finds:
The intriguing possibility comes from a Pew Research Center analysis released Thursday: The poll finds that Obama's
overall approval rating among whites tumbled seven percentage points from just after his July 22 news conference
through last weekend, as the focus turned increasingly to his handling of the situation. The percentage of whites
who"like" the kind of person he is fell by six points.
In a callback survey Monday evening, more than twice as many whites disapproved than approved of how Obama was
dealing with the matter (45 percent disapproved, 22 approved and 33 percent said they did not know).... -
WaPo, 7-30-09
- Cold beer, calm words from Obama, prof and cop:
Said Obama after the highly anticipated, 40-minute chat on the Rose Garden patio:"I have always believed that what
brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart.""I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive
lesson from this episode," said the nation's first black president.... -
AP, 7-30-09
- Obama More Bartender Than Mediator At Beer Summit:
U.S. President Barack Obama played bartender-in-chief on Thursday at a"beer summit" of the main players in a
racially charged case that he hoped would be a"positive lesson" in a national dialogue on race.
Obama, the first black U.S. president, said it was a"friendly, thoughtful" conversation over beer at the White
House with prominent Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and police Sergeant James Crowley,
who is white.... -
Reuters, 7-30-09 - Julian Zelizer says the beer summit is unprecedented:
...However,"that was a much more explosive issue than this," said Zelizer, a Princeton University professor.
By getting involved, he said, Kennedy tacitly showed support for the civil rights movement and followed up with
White House policies that helped bring about racial equality.
While Obama may be sincere about using the"teachable moment" of the Gates case to launch a positive discussion
about race,"part of it was about him, rather than the situation," Zelizer said."This is a way for him to quasi-
apologize for what he said.""I think that some part of him genuinely believes that dialogue can be helpful," he added."It's also clearly
partially a political response to stop a story that's getting out of control."
"I'm not a big fan of this beer at the White House," Zelizer said."It turns this into a media moment, rather
than a serious moment.""It can kind of trivialize the matter," he said, instead of tackling the deep-seated racial problem underlying
the confrontation between Gates, who is black, and police Sergeant James Crowley. The officer, who is white,
was called to Gates' home when a neighbor reported a burglary, but Gates had forced open the jammed
front door.
"If this is all we see from the president, there will be some people that will be disappointed" Zelizer said."The danger of a hearts-and-minds approach is it never gets to the underlying problem If there's no policy on
the table -- no serious proposal on the table -- it's hard to see how these discussions can really result in
long-term change."... -
Boston Globe, 7-30-09 - 911 caller in Gates case says she'd make call again -
USA Today, 7-29-09
- The Gates of Political Distraction
Obama's mistake was falling for a culture war diversion:
The essential point about Gates-gate, or the tempest over last week's arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis
Gates Jr., is this: Most liberal commentary on the subject has taken race as its theme. Conservative commentators,
by contrast, have furiously hit the class button.... -
WSJ, 7-28-09
- Beer diplomacy: Obama aims for calm and comity:
Three guys, sitting around a picnic table, having a cold one. Beer diplomacy? The"teachable moment" the president
promised? Or just a way for the White House to get people to quit talking about the president's comments on a racial
brouhaha in Massachusetts?
When Barack Obama meets Thursday with the black professor and white policeman at the center of a national uproar over
race relations, he is aiming for a show that will get positive news coverage and then go away....
The broader point: The White House wants to show Obama as a reconciliatory force and then try to get people focused
back on his plans for health care overhaul.... -
AP, 7-28-09 - Gates 911 call: Witness not sure she sees crime:
The 911 caller who reported two men possibly breaking into the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.
did not describe their race, acknowledged they might just be having a hard time with the door and said she saw two
suitcases on the porch.
Cambridge police on Monday released the 911 recording and radio transmissions from the scene in an effort to show
they had nothing to hide, but the tapes raised new questions about how and why the situation escalated....
In her 911 call, Lucia Whalen, who works at the Harvard alumni magazine, repeatedly tells the operator she is
not sure what is happening.... -
AP, 7-27-09 - Obama Tries to Move Past Gates Furor:
The White House expressed hope that it has put behind it a controversy surrounding President Barack Obama's remarks
on the arrest of African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. But the incident highlights the challenge facing Mr.
Obama in addressing the issue of race and in keeping the debate focused on his broader agenda.
David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Obama, said Sunday that he believed the president's expression of regret
for his initial statement that the police"acted stupidly" was having"the desired effect."
"People are talking more constructively now," Mr. Axelrod said on CBS's"Face The Nation.""The steam has gone out
of this. Instead of heat being generated, more light is being generated."
The incident highlighted social divisions that Mr. Obama hoped had been eased by his election as the nation's first
African-American president. The emotions triggered by his comments on the Gates arrest suggest that the issue of
race continues to hang over his presidency..... -
WSJ, 7-26-09 - Obama, Gates and the American Black Man:
NYT, 7-25-09
- Gates Says 'Yes' to Beer With Crowley: "It was very kind of the President to phone me today. Vernon Jordan is absolutely correct: my unfortunate
experience will only have a larger meaning if we can all use this to diminish racial profiling and to enhance
fairness and equity in the criminal justice system for poor people and for people of color.
And to that end, I look forward to studying the history of racial profiling in a new documentary for PBS. I
told the President that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks
during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative. I am pleased that he, too,
is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sgt. [James] Crowley for a beer with the
President will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige.
After all, I first proposed that Sgt. Crowley and I meet as early as last Monday. If my experience leads to
the lessening of the occurrence of racial profiling, then I would find that enormously gratifying. Because, in
the end, this is not about me at all; it is about the creation of a society in which 'equal justice before law'
is a lived reality." -
Henry Louis Gates in The Root (edited by Henry Louis Gates), 7-24-09 - 10 Things You Didn't Know About Henry Louis Gates Jr. -
US News, 7-24-09
- Black males' fear of racial profiling very real, regardless of class:
Several African American professionals find professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s recent encounter with police all too
easy to relate to. Their lingering question is when to speak up....
Lawrence Otis Graham, the author of books about affluent African Americans, says wealthy blacks may actually be
subjected to more racial profiling than other African Americans.... -
LAT, 7-24-09
- Case Recalls Tightrope Blacks Walk With Police:
....Like countless other blacks around the country, Mr. Medley was revisiting his encounters with the police as a
national discussion about race and law enforcement unfolded after the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard's
prominent scholar of African-American history. Professor Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct last Thursday at
his home in Cambridge, Mass., while the police investigated a report of a possible break-in there. The charge was
later dropped, and the Cambridge Police Department said the incident was"regrettable and unfortunate."
In interviews here and in Atlanta, in Web postings and on television talk shows, blacks and others said that
what happened to Professor Gates is a common, if unacknowledged, reality for many people of color. They also
said that beyond race, the ego of the police officer probably played a role....
NYT, 7-23-09 - Obama doesn't regret 'acted stupidly' remark about Henry Gates Jr. arrest:
What's everyone so upset about?
That was President Obama's response Thursday night during an ABC News interview when asked if he regretted his"acted stupidly" comment during Wednesday night's press conference.
"I am suprised by the controversy," Obama told ABC's Terry Moran."I think it was [a] pretty straightforward comment
that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home." -
NY Daily News, 7-23-09 - Cop who arrested black scholar is profiling expert:
The white police sergeant accused of racial profiling after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.
in his home was hand-picked by a black police commissioner to teach recruits about avoiding racial profiling.
Friends and fellow officers — black and white — say Sgt. James Crowley is a principled police officer and family
man who is being unfairly described as racist.
"If people are looking for a guy who's abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy," said Andy Meyer, of Natick,
who has vacationed with Crowley, coached youth sports with him and is his teammate on a men's softball team."This
is not a racist, rogue cop. This is a fine, upstanding man. And if every cop in the world were like him, it would
be a better place."
Gates accused the 11-year department veteran of being an unyielding, race-baiting authoritarian after Crowley
arrested and charged him with disorderly conduct last week.... -
AP, 7-23-09 - Police Chief Responds to Obama's Remarks:
The top police official here defended the officer who arrested Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.,
and said his department was"deeply pained" by President Barack Obama's remark that Cambridge police"acted stupidly"
in the case.
Commissioner Robert Haas called Sgt. James Crowley"a stellar member of this department" who properly followed
police procedure and had no racial motivation in arresting the 58-year-old African-American scholar at his home
last week. Authorities dropped the disorderly conduct charge this week.
But Mr. Haas said he would convene a panel to examine the incident and ways to avoid such incidents, which he said"we deeply regret."... -
WSJ, 7-23-09 - Obama Criticizes Arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates :
President Obama bluntly accused the police of acting"stupidly" by arresting the Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.
last week after an officer had established that Mr. Gates had not broken into his own home in Cambridge, Mass.
Mr. Obama stopped short of accusing the police department of racial profiling, as Mr. Gates has done. But during a
prime-time White House news conference that was otherwise largely devoted to health care, Mr. Obama weighed in full
bore on the Gates case and suggested that the police should never have arrested him.
"There's a long history in this country of African-Americans being stopped disproportionately by the police,"
Mr. Obama said."It's a sign of how race remains a factor in this society." -
NYT, 7-22-09 - "The good news about the Henry Louis Gates fiasco":
When I heard that prominent black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested for breaking into his own
home in Cambridge, Mass., it made me proud of America. It may seem paradoxical to focus on the positive side of
the preeminent scholar's public humiliation. This is, after all, a distinguished staff writer for the New Yorker,
the man who helped Oprah find her roots. It may seem that there's no positive side at all. (His own neighbor,
a Harvard magazine employee, didn't recognize him and called the cops. How pathetic is that?)
But last night I happened to be reading a book that put the whole incident into context, a volume that never fails
to chill me:"We Charge Genocide," a petition brought before the U.N. in 1951 that makes a very convincing case
for defining the treatment of African-Americans in the U.S. as a genocide. This remarkable book consists, in part,
of a litany of shocking bias crimes committed against black citizens across the country -- and only documented
ones occurring between 1945 to 1950. A typical entry reads:"February 13 -- ISAAC WOODWARD, JR., discharged from
the Army only a few hours, was on his way home when he had his eyes gouged out in Batesburg, South Carolina, by
the town chief of police, Linwood Shull ... [A]n all-white jury acquitted Shull after being out for 15 minutes."
And so on, for 50-odd hair-raising pages. Believe me, Toni Morrison couldn't top it.... -
James Hannaham at Salon.com, 7-22-09 - Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the Police in"Post-Racial" America:
This past Thursday, the renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., author of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a
Black Man, was reminded that sometimes, there's just one.
It is the way that his white neighbor, Lucia Whalen, looked at him as he stood on his porch with his luggage,
attempting to nudge his jammed front door open. That look that somehow confuses a nearly sixty year old bespectacled
professor with a blue blazer who cannot walk without the aid of a cane, as a crafty black burglar practicing his
illicit deeds at 12:30 PM in the afternoon. Likely imagining herself as some courageous vigilante protecting the
sanctity of her exclusive neighborhood to the unending praise of her grateful neighbors, she instead must bear
the ignominious title of"the white lady who called the cops on 'Skip' Gates'" from dinner party to dinner party
like a Scarlet K-K-K .
It is the way that Officer James Crowley, who responded to Ms. Whalen's misguided vigilance, looked at the MacArthur
fellowship winner standing in his own foyer, as if to make humiliatingly literal the W.E.B. Du Bois lament from The
Souls of Black Folk,"Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?" Gates, understandably
exhausted from the return flight from China he had just taken, responded to the officer's insistent questioning
of his identity with frustration -- but did indeed prove his ownership of the residence and right to be there.... -
Brandon M. Terry at the Huffington Post, 7-22-09 - If it can happen to Skip Gates ...:
For many, it was a startling portrait: the normally reserved Harvard University professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr.,
standing on his front porch in handcuffs, appearing to yell as police officers surrounded him. Yet those were the
images that circulated Tuesday, as news of Gates' controversial arrest – and the subsequent dropping of charges
against him – circulated on Web sites and television.
Stephen L. Carter, a Yale University law professor and novelist, felt like he was watching a scene unfold from
one of his own books. Carter has written scholarly works along with bestsellers about the lives of upper-class
African Americans, including those in academe, and his fiction often illustrates how wealthy blacks draw suspicion
in posh environs like private beaches or Ivy League campuses.
"If it can happen to Henry Louis Gates, possibly the most prominent black scholar in the country, and in his home
town, then it can indeed happen to any of us," Carter, author of The Emperor of Ocean Park, wrote in an e-mail
to Inside Higher Ed.
"Odd, isn’t it? Here we are in the age of Obama, and some things haven’t changed. Blackness is associated in
the public mind with wrongdoing; if we are spotted in an unexpected locale, we must be up to something."... -
Inside Higher Ed, 7-22-09 - Skip Gates and the Post-Racial Project:
Over the past several days a strange characterization of Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has emerged. Many are
portraying him as a radical who easily and inappropriately appeals to race as an excuse and explanation. This image
of Gates is inaccurate. In fact, more than any other black intellectual in the country Professor Henry Louis Gates,
Jr. was an apolitical figure. This is neither a criticism nor an accolade, simply an observation.... -
Melissa Harris-Lacewell in The Nation, 7-21-09
- The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr. talks about his arrest and the outrage of racial profiling
in America:
I'm saying 'You need to send someone to fix my lock.' All of a sudden, there was a policeman on my porch. And
I thought, 'This is strange.’ So I went over to the front porch still holding the phone, and I said 'Officer,
can I help you?' And he said, 'Would you step outside onto the porch.' And the way he said it, I knew he wasn’t
canvassing for the police benevolent association. All the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I realized
that I was in danger. And I said to him no, out of instinct. I said, 'No, I will not.'.... -
Henry Louis Gates Jr. in The Root, 7-21-09
- Police Drop Charges Against Black Scholar:
Authorities agreed to drop a disorderly-conduct charge against renowned Harvard University African-American
studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who had been arrested at his own home last week after police answered a
call about a suspected break-in there.
The arrest had sparked concern that Mr. Gates was a victim of racial profiling, a controversial practice in
which police allegedly use race as a factor in identifying criminal suspects.
In a joint statement, Mr. Gates' lawyer, the City of Cambridge, Mass., its police department and the county
district attorney's office called the July 16 incident"regrettable and unfortunate." The statement added that"this incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of Professor Gates or the
character of the Cambridge Police Department" and that"all parties agree this is a just resolution to an unfortunate
set of circumstances."
In an interview Tuesday, Mr. Gates said the situation"shows our vulnerability to the caprices of individual
police officers who for whatever reason are free to arrest you on outrageous charges like disorderly conduct."
Mr. Gates called a police report alleging he yelled at an officer and was uncooperative"a work of sheer fantasy."
Mr. Gates, a Harvard professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American
Research, said he hadn't decided whether to pursue any legal action. He said if the officer who arrested him,
Sgt. James Crowley,"sincerely apologized, I would be willing to forgive him."... -
WSJ, 7-21-09 - Gates chastises officer after authorities agree to drop criminal charge:
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. chastised a Cambridge police officer today and demanded an apology after authorities agreed to drop a disorderly conduct charge against the renowned African-American scholar.
Gates accused the officer who arrested him at his Cambridge home of having a"broad imagination" when he summarized
last Thursday's confrontation in police reports, and he denied making several inflammatory remarks.
"I believe the police officer should apologize to me for what he knows he did that was wrong," Gates said in a
phone interview from his other home in Martha's Vineyard."If he apologizes sincerely, I am willing to forgive him.
And if he admits his error, I am willing to educate him about the history of racism in America and the issue of
racial profiling ... That's what I do for a living."
Gates, 58, was handcuffed and booked last Thursday following a police investigation into a suspected burglary at
his Ware Street home near Harvard Square. A passerby spotted Gates and his driver, who had dropped him off from
the airport, trying to push the front door open and called the police. The door had been jammed. Police responded
and arrested Gates after they said he became belligerent.
Earlier today, the Middlesex district attorney's office announced plans to drop criminal charges against Gates.
The City of Cambridge and the police department recommended today that prosecutors not pursue charges in a joint
statement from authorities and Gates that called the confrontation"regrettable and unfortunate."
"This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of professor Gates or the
character of the Cambridge Police Department," the statement said."All parties agree that this is a just resolution
to an unfortunate set of circumstances."
Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons said in a statement that the controversy illustrated"that Cambridge must
continue finding ways to address matters of race and class in a frank, honest, and productive manner."... -
Boston Globe, 7-21-09 - Henry Louis Gates Jr. Arrested:
Colleagues of Henry Louis Gates Jr., Harvard's most prominent scholar of African-American history, are accusing
the police here of racism after he was arrested at his home last week by an officer investigating a report of a
robbery in progress.
Professor Gates, who has taught at Harvard for nearly two decades, arrived home on Thursday from a trip to China to
find his front door jammed, said Charles J. Ogletree, a law professor at Harvard who is representing him.
He forced the door open with the help of his cab driver, Professor Ogletree said, and had been inside for a few
minutes when Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department appeared at his door and asked him to step outside.
Professor Gates, 58, refused to do so, Professor Ogletree said. From that point, the account of the professor and
the police began to differ.... -
NYT, 7-21-09 - Black scholar's arrest raises profiling questions:
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the nation's pre-eminent black scholar, was arrested at his home near Harvard University
after forcing his way through his front door because it was jammed.
Gates was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge last Thursday after police said he"exhibited loud and
tumultuous behavior." He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled
for Aug. 26. Police refused to comment on the arrest Monday.... -
AP, 7-21-09
- Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrested outside his home, calls Cambridge police 'racist':
A distinguished black Harvard University professor was handcuffed and dragged off his porch to jail after
Massachusetts cops mistook him for a burglar.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's most renowned scholars of African-American history, was busted
when he repeatedly accused a cop of racism for confronting him, police said."Why, because I'm a black man in America?" Gates, 58, demanded, the police report said.... -
NY Daily News, 7-21-09
- Harvard professor arrested, racism accusations:
An acclaimed black US scholar accused a police officer in Cambridge, Massachusetts of racism for investigating
reports of a break-in as he entered his own house, after which he was arrested, police records have shown.
Henry Louis Gates, 58, considered a preeminent professor of African American studies at the prestigious Harvard
University, was charged with disorderly conduct. Police cited his"loud and tumultuous behavior."
Gates was seen by a passing woman to be attempting entry to the front door of his house -- which was damaged --
along with another black man, according to the police report from July 16.
The woman alerted the police and by the time a uniformed officer arrived Gates was inside his home and reporting
the faulty door to the Harvard Real Estate office, said a statement later released by Gates' lawyer, Charles Ogletree.
The other man at the scene was Gates' hired driver.
"Professor Gates informed the officer that he lived there and was a faculty member at Harvard University," Ogletree
said.
According to the police report, Gates repeatedly told officers at the scene that"this is what happens to black men
in America.".... -
AFP, 7-20-09
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