Black Scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. Victim of Racial Profiling

The Boston Globe is reporting that Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge.

Gates is one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard. Questions have been raised by some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling after he was arrested by police investigating a possible break-in after he locked himself out of his house and was trying to get inside.

Cambridge police booked him for disorderly conduct after reportedly exhibiting volatile behavior.

Friends said Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree, who has taken on previous cases with racial implications, is representing Gates.