Author, critic and teacher Henry Louis Gates Jr serves as the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
Gates was arrested on July 16, 2009, for disorderly conduct at his Cambridge, Massachusetts, home. Officers were called after he was seen trying to break into his own home after locking himself out. Gates reportedly accused the police officers of being racist, stating "This is what happens to black men in America."http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20090720harvard_scholar_henry_louis_gates_jr_arrested_at_home/srvc=home&position=also