Henry Louis Gates Jr. Donates Handcuffs To Smithsonian Black History Museum

NEW YORK — Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. says he he's donated the handcuffs used on him during his arrest last year outside his home to the Smithsonian Institution's black history museum.

Gates says in Sunday's edition of The New York Times Magazine that he donated the handcuffs to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Gates' arrest last July by police investigating a report of a possible break-in at his home near Harvard University sparked a national debate over racial profiling.

The charge against Gates was dropped, and the Harvard scholar later reconciled with the police sergeant who arrested him outside his Cambridge home.

Gates says he met with Sgt. James Crowley several months ago at a cafe, where the officer gave him the handcuffs.

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Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com

Comments

[KIVPossum]

08:50 AM on 02/16/2010

Those two were in a race to the bottom: Crowley filled with the arrogance of power, and Gates full of self-importance. Would have been a non-event if either had shown a bit of common sense about the situation. Thought and hoped this event was gone and forgotten, but seems that Gates is still very assured of his major place in history. Or, wants to create a place for himself.

[FZliveson]

01:57 AM on 02/15/2010

And the helix continues to rotate about its axis of ignorant arrogance.

[norman60]

01:53 AM on 02/15/2010

Prof. Gates is such a charismatic guy. He had since moved on, turning his personal adversity into a positive history. These days, he keeps creating positive news. Go Prof !

[shader51]

09:15 PM on 02/15/2010

The guy did more harm to race relations in '09 than anyone else.
He showed zero class both then and now.

[mypov123]

09:05 PM on 02/16/2010

To me, this is an insult to the black men who have actually DIED at the hands of racist police officers. Why does he feel the need to donate the handcuffs to the Smithsonian, because he's a professor at Harvard?

[Olampean]

01:06 AM on 02/15/2010

Gimme a break.

[Harvee Wallbanger]

12:45 AM on 02/15/2010

I think this is rather arrogant of Mr. Gates. For him to think that his incident had any significant influence on black history or the struggle for civil rights is, frankly, ludicrous. The beer mugs from the White House would be much more historic but just as insignificant.

[Sarge0311]

01:09 AM on 02/15/2010

Agreed.
He was far too self-righteous throughout the whole incident.
Everything that I saw and read had him wrong from the start.

[KIVPossum]

08:33 AM on 02/16/2010

He did play it to the hilt.

[scat]

01:14 AM on 02/15/2010

the only ra cist involved in this whole thing. That is what Gates was.

[PhineasGage730]

01:37 AM on 02/15/2010

Wow

[Harvee Wallbanger]

06:11 AM on 02/16/2010

I don't agree with that.

[tkondaks]

12:35 AM on 02/15/2010

As a federally owned institution, the Smithsonian I believe is subject to the freedom of information act.

I would be very curious to know if Mr. Gates got an appraisal of the value of the handcuffs (historical value has a monetary equivalency). He would want this for the income tax deduction he gets for the donation.

[libertron]

12:22 AM on 02/15/2010

I know when I get to the Smithsonian, I am going to walk right past the Wright brothers' flyer to go stare at this clown's handcuffs.

[tkondaks]

12:31 AM on 02/15/2010

funnily enough, the handcuffs probably have a fair market value of several thousand dollars if not 10s of thousands of dollars. As such they will represent a hefty tax deduction for the professor on this year's income tax return (I think you can deduct up to 20% of adjusted gross income to charity in any given year). So that "gift" may be worth several thousand dollars in saved taxes.

[FZliveson]

01:55 AM on 02/15/2010

And there most certainly would have been a buyer.

[Principaldad]

02:07 AM on 02/15/2010

If that were even true, he would also have to report Crowley giving them to him as income in the form of a gift. The net result on his taxes would be zero.

[daddylox]

12:21 AM on 02/15/2010

Haters are STILL abound, I see.

[libertron]

12:49 AM on 02/15/2010

What do you mean by that? People are right to ridicule this guy. Both him and the cop, and our dear leader also, were a$$es. The cop had no right to arrest him in his own home for doing nothing but complaining. Gates had no right to throw down the race card for this cop trying to protect HIS own home from what the cop believed was an intruder. Our dear leader had no reason to even get involved, except for the race angle, which he was supposed to be above. You might think that BO would have bigger fish to fry with 10% unemployment, Al Queda members plotting new ways to kill us every day, and our country on the road to bankrupcy with unfunded entitlement programs bleeding us dry. But no, he had to have the "beer summit".

[daddylox]

12:54 AM on 02/15/2010

People that have NEVER walked in those steps, usually shares your sentiment.

[Principaldad]

02:16 AM on 02/15/2010

You are still assuming that Gates "played the race card". Really the only person who made the claim that he did so before he was arrested in his own home was Crowley. The tapes did not back it up. There were no eyewitnesses to back it up. It was solely based on Crowleys word. It was also proven that Crowley did not tell the truth on his report (shown by the 911 and dispatch tapes). Crowley did fudge his report to make it seem like he was more justified in suspecting Gates.

The only indication that Gates mentioned race at all was AFTER he was lured outside and arrested. If you dont think that had something to do with his color, you are naive.

The President got involved because he was asked a question about it. He gave the correct answer. The police were wrong to arrest a man in his own home AFTER It was determined he lived there, and the president did not claim it had anything to do with race. Only obstructionist opponents who criticize EVERYTHING Obama said wo tried to make it something different.

[deman123]

11:31 PM on 02/14/2010

He should be donating tazer leads.

[Rigagli]

11:17 PM on 02/14/2010

The Gates event belongs in the dustbin of history, not the Smithsonian.

[bensisco]

11:13 PM on 02/14/2010

Some of you may want to read Gate's side of the story if posting links is allowed on the HP:

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/moving_america_news/11507

[USAFVET76]

11:01 PM on 02/14/2010

He has an ego similar to that of the Pres. Just can't seem to get enough attention.

[henrywolff]

10:58 PM on 02/14/2010

Oh, give me a break. Self-aggrandize much?

[ChezMJ]

10:32 PM on 02/14/2010

Gosh, I've met Skip Gates & he seems like a really nice guy...but donating the handcuffs to the SMITHSONIAN??? I think that's a bit...much. He's not the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for heaven's sake.

[jeanrenoir]

11:00 PM on 02/14/2010

As an English professor well aware of Gates' reputation as the ultimate academic prima donna and egomaniac, I'm not surprised by Gates' inflated sense of self-importance here. Gates thinks he's a landmark figure in African-American history. He confuses himself with real giants like King and Malcolm, not to mention great writers like Ellison, Wright, Hughes, Morrison, and the rest. Fifty years from now not a single American of ANY race will know who Gates was. He played an admirable role in the creation of African-American Studies, and its institutionalization at Harvard, but all that was less than earth-shaking. He'll have his 15 minutes of fame, and soon be forgotten, even at the Smithsonian. I write this as a huge admirer of King and the giants of African-American history, and as a strong supporter of Obama.

[guendy]

10:25 PM on 02/14/2010

Something very similar happened to my husband and I in front of our house. We were parking our car in our driveway and the police shined their lights on us, they stopped us from parking in our own driveway and were completely rude about the whole thing. All this after we told them we were in front of our house AND they saw that my husband's driver's license matched the address. We don't live in an upscale area like the one the Professor lives in but our neighborhood is nice enough. They never gave us an explanation for pulling us over, nor did they apologize for the misunderstanding. They were pompous and arrogant. My husband says he's gotten used to being pulled over for the way he looks, and I think that that's a shame.