President Barack Obama hosts 'beer summit' for Prof Henry Gates and Sgt James Crowley - TelegraphPresident Barack Obama hosts 'beer summit' for Prof Henry Gates and Sgt James Crowley
In perhaps the most unusual sitdown of his administration, President Barack Obama hosted Prof Henry Gates, a prominent black scholar, and Sgt James Crowley, a white police sergeant, for beers in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday evening.
President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, has a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley at the White House Photo: APMr Obama was hoping to defuse the angry racial furore that has raged since Sgt Crowley arrested Prof Gates for disorderly conduct at the Harvard academic’s own home in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 16.
The President has acknowledged that he fuelled the controversy when he said that the police “acted stupidly” for arresting Prof Gates after he protested vociferously about Sgt Crowley’s actions during a burglary investigation.
Mr Obama invited the two men and Vice-President Joe Biden to join him for a symbolic beer and chat and to talk over their differences. It was not, he insisted, a summit, although they met in a setting where previous presidents have often hosted international leaders.
The White House allowed cameramen to shoot some long-range pictures of the start of the meeting before they were ushered away.
The photographs showed Mr Crowley and Mr Gates in dark suits, despite the warm weather in Washington, while Mr Obama and Mr Biden opted for the choreographed casual look of white shirts after shedding their jackets.
A White House employee carried the beers out on a tray to the four men as they sat around a white table. They drank from clear glass mugs and snacked on peanuts and pretzels served in small silver bowls.
Mr Obama drank Bud Light, Sgt Crowley opted for a Blue Moon, Mr Gates chose a Boston favourite, Sam Adams Light – despite earlier indications he was going for a Jamaican Red Stripe – and Mr Biden sipped a Bucklers.
In the 30 seconds that a pool reporter was allowed to observe events from 50 feet away, Sgt Crowley was doing most of the talking and Mr Gates appeared to be leaning in, listening intently. At one point, the President laughed heartily.
The two protagonists brought their families to the White House and they toured the East Wing together before the sit-down, then met Mr Obama in the Oval Office before moving out into the Rose Garden.
Sgt Crowley had been called to investigate a possible burglary at Mr Gates’ house after the academic was seen by a passer-by forcing his way into his own home because of a broken door.
Mr Gates had claimed that he was the victim of racial profiling after he was arrested while Sgt Crowley insisted that he out him in handcuffs after coming under a barrage of verbal abuse. The charges were dropped but the police officer said he would not apologise.
The incident sparked a bitter debate about race relations in America, sucking in the country’s biracial President and distracting him from his push for heathcare reforms. Whether the beer diplomacy did anything to soothe the contretemps was not clear from the pictures.