Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., the Harvard professor whose 2009 arrest outside his home sparked racial controversy, will speak at Northwestern in February, said University President Morton Schapiro.
Gates will speak Feb. 17 as a part of the Leon Forrest Lecture series, sponsored by the African American Studies department.
Schapiro mentioned the upcoming appearance during a Q-and-A session following PBS journalist Gwen Ifill’s Minow Lecture in Communications.
Schapiro asked Ifill whether she thought race played a role in the media frenzy following Gates’ arrest. Leading up to his question, Schapiro told Ifill and lecture attendees that he will ask Gates to discuss the controversy when he speaks on campus next quarter.
In July 2009, a neighbor called the police on Gates as he was attempting to get into his Cambridge home, thinking he was trying to break in. Gates was arrested, immediately raising concerns of racial profiling.
The media storm ended famously in a “beer summit” between Gates, arresting officer Sgt. James Crowley, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the White House.
Gates, like Ifill, is a host on PBS. A tenured Harvard professor and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Gates has been referred to as “the nation’s most famous black scholar” by journalist Michael Kinsley.
Schapiro’s comment marked the second time this quarter that he revealed previously undisclosed information about an upcoming campus event.
Last month, at the annual convocation for incoming freshmen, he accidentally announced that Snoop Dogg and Kid Cudi will perform at A&O Productions’ Fall Blowout Show on Oct. 15.
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