07-02-2020, 02:57 AM
Quote:President Donald Trump’s former Attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to renowned Black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. as “some criminal” in an interview with The New York Times Magazine... Far from “some criminal,” Gates is one of the most prominent Black scholars in the nation. He is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard University. “He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius Grant’ in 1981, was named one of Time magazine’s ’25 Most Influential Americans’ in 1997, has created 15 documentaries based on his scholarship and currently hosts the show ‘Finding Your Roots’ on PBS,” The Harvard Crimson reported. Gates was wrongly arrested by Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley in 2009 as he tried to enter his residence after police received a 911 call that men were trying to break into the home. Gates had difficulty opening the door and tried to force it open with the help of his driver. Even though it was his own home, Crowley charged Gates with disorderly conduct. The charges were ultimately dropped, but the incident sparked a nationwide outcry over racial profiling. Obama, then in his first year in office, said the police had acted “stupidly.”Jeff Sessions refers to a renowned Black scholar as ‘some criminal’ – Alternet.org