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Join Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree as he discusses his new book, The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates and Race, Class and Crime in America, with Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Sam Fulwood III. The book highlights some of the perplexing issues that drew public scrutiny last year after Cambridge Police Officer James Crowley arrested Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. The arrest sparked countless private and public debates about the lingering impact of race on American society. The cacophony of conversations even engulfed President Obama, who felt compelled to invite the professor and the policeman to a highly publicized White House "beer summit."
In the immediate aftermath of the Crowley-Gates indicident, Ogletree provided counsel to Gates, his friend and colleague. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Ogletree was a senior advisor to his former law student and current president of the United States. Now, drawing upon an insider’s knowledge of both men and vast experience as a criminal law and race law professor, Ogletree’s new book places the Gates arrest and resulting fallout into a context framed by the nation’s complicated racial and legal history. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing during the event.
Introduction by:
Erica Williams, Deputy Director, Progress 2050
Featured participants:
Charles Ogletree, Jesse Climenko Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, and founding and executive director of Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice
Sam Fulwood III, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress