Henry Louis Gates Jr. donates handcuffs to Smithsonian

Henry Louis Gates Jr. donates handcuffs to Smithsonian

NEW YORK (AP) -- Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. says he he's donated the handcuffs used on him during his arrest last year outside his home to the Smithsonian Institution's black history museum. Gates says in Sunday's edition of The New York Times Magazine that he donated the handcuffs to the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. Gates' arrest last July by police investigating a report of a possible break-in at his home near Harvard University sparked a national debate over racial profiling. The charge against Gates was dropped, and the Harvard scholar later reconciled with the police sergeant who arrested him outside his Cambridge home. Gates says he met with Sgt. James Crowley several months ago at a cafe, where the officer gave him the handcuffs.