The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America [Hardcover]

Charles Ogletree (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 22, 2010 | ISBN-10: 023010326X | ISBN-13: 978-0230103269 | Edition: 1

Shortly after noon on Tuesday, July 16, 2009, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., MacArthur Fellow and Harvard professor, was mistakenly arrested by Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley for attempting to break into his own home. The ensuing media firestorm ignited debate across the country. The Crowley-Gates incident was a clash of absolutes, underscoring the tension between black and white, police and civilians, and the privileged and less privileged in modern America. Charles Ogletree, one of the country’s foremost experts on civil rights, uses this incident as a lens through which to explore issues of race, class, and crime, with the goal of creating a more just legal system for all.

Working from years of research and based on his own classes and experiences with law enforcement, the author illuminates the steps needed to embark on the long journey toward racial and legal equality for all Americans.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A great teacher is one who seizes on every great teaching moment to explain and educate.  Charles Ogletree is such a teacher.  He has seized on the very public arrest of Professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates to teach Americans important lessons about the Constitution, the continuing relevance of race in America and the ease with which an incident can escalate into a major event.  Ogletree was there, knows all the participants and has written a brilliant book from which all Americans can learn."  --Alan Dershowitz, author of Trials of Zion

“The Presumption of Guilt” is both informative and instructive. Informative because it provides a very accurate description of the events of that day and instructive because it identifies the critical areas which must be addressed in order to prevent racial profiling and other disparities in the criminal justice system." -- Ronald E. Hampton, Executive Director, National Black Police Association

"Charles Ogletree possesses one of the most brilliant legal minds in American culture and here he bridges the ivory tower academy and the messy world in a rare and unique manner. Don't miss this book." --Cornel West, Princeton University

 

Praise for Ogletree's All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half Century of Brown vs. Board of Education:

 

A bold and original analysis...reveals how the great reforms once promised by this landmark decision were systematically undermined. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

A remarkable and very readable account of one young man's coming of age during the civil rights movement....A 'must read.' -- John Hope Franklin, Professor of History Emeritus, Duke University, Author of From Slavery to Freedom

About the Author

Charles Ogletree is the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the founding and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at the law school. He is the author of four books on race and the law, including the critically acclaimed All Deliberate Speed, and has received numerous awards and honors, including being named one of the 100+ Most Influential Black Americans by Ebony Magazine. In the immediate aftermath of the Crowley-Gates incident, Ogletree acted not only as counsel to professor Gates but continues to be special counsel to President Obama and advisor on police behavior to both Harvard University and the City of Cambridge.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition (June 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 023010326X
• ISBN-13: 978-0230103269
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 0.9 x 9.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #886,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Presumption of Guilt - A Must Read September 21, 2010

By Dorothy Stoneman

Format:Hardcover

As a white American, I believe that Charles Ogletree's book, "The Presumption of Guilt" is a must read for all of us who have never experienced, and never will, what it is to be black in America, especially what it is to be a black man in America. It is a mind-opening revelation. We need to be reminded that our evolution from a highly oppressive society built partly on slavery and the inequality that was written into our original constitution, to a fully free nation of equal opportunity, responsibility, and safety for all, is not over. Yes, it has changed radically for the better. Now the problem is more subtle; it is below the radar much of the time, or largely obscured by class differences. But in fact, the rooting out of various assumptions, presumptions, and vast differences in the treatment of blacks and whites by the criminal justice system and other systems, is a challenge that still lies before us and that needs white as well as black awareness and support.

As an activist in the Civil Rights generation, I lived in Harlem for 24 years, and I now lead a national program designed to provide opportunity for young people who were born poor and have dropped off the opportunity ladder. I am reasonably familiar with their struggles. The presumption of guilt that follows the low-income young men of color is consistently damaging and sometimes life-threatening.

I was less familiar with the struggles of the highly successful African American men who gave 100 examples of unexpected mistreatment to illustrate the "The Presumption of Guilt." These stories were excellent reminders, important to keep all of us aware that we have a lot more work to do. The first step is to become cognizant of the reality from more points of view than our own.... Professor Ogletree, as a black man who has achieved extraordinary success in white America, is a fair-minded, careful communicator of an awareness needed by all.

We now live in a multi-cultural multi-racial society that aspires explicitly to be just and fair to all. It is an extraordinary society in an important stage of development toward one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice, opportunity and love, for all. Charles Ogletree's quick and responsible treatment of the stunningly visible events surrounding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and his treatment of where this event fits in our history and current society, offers wisdom and vision from several points of view that enlarged my awareness. Many thanks to Professor Ogletree for using his multi-perspective experience to raise our national consciousness. Read more ›

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Worthy of Parade Magazine November 17, 2010

By Charles M. Wyzanski

Format:Hardcover

As a tenured Harvard Law School professor, Charles Ogletree need not have published lest he perish, so one is left to wonder whether this thin volume is nothing more than a very distinguished practicing attorney still trolling for clients. The story of the arrest of Henry Lois Gates, Jr. has much to teach us about the problems of race, class, and crime in America. Unfortunately, Ogletree, as Gates's lawyer, is either not at liberty or not able to do more than narrate it. With all the intellectual heft of a Parade Magazine article, but at 100 times the length, he leaves us with this vapid, and all-too-obvious, conclusion, at page 125, just before his 110-page epilogue: "If we are to learn anything from the race and class encounters addressed in these pages, it is that each American has the capacity, and indeed the obligation, to find ways to eliminate racial disparities in our society and to create opportunities for police and all citizens to mutually respect each other." As for the 110-page epilogue, entitled "100 Ways to Look at a Black Man," it consists of unnumbered episodes, each summarized in but a few lackluster paragraphs, illustrating discrimination as experienced by other, mostly now prominent, African American men. Thin gruel for a $25 purchase price.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I am always surprised when blacks are "surprised"... November 29, 2010

By J. Smith

Format:Hardcover

I am always surprised when blacks are "surprised" when they get pulled over. I grew up in a small town in Massachusetts. The only black girl from K-12 in the public school.

I try to explain to my friends, other professionals in the DC area, who grew up in black middle class neighborhoods, that Mass. is a different species. No matter the additional letters, behind one's name, black is seen first. So it is not the police officers who need to change and be color blind. That may or may not happen. It is blacks, who have been blinded by class.

I knew from a very young age, that discrimination will come just as sure from the working class, as well as the educated. Growing up, my mother who used to work at a major hospital in Boston, used to tell me as a child about a black doctor, Ivy League trained. When this doctor would come in to see a patient, some patients would ask him to bring the bed pan,.

The majority of people from Mass. are working class, and the first time some of them may ever see a black person is when they come to Boston. So the mindset for some of these whites is that blacks are usually at the bottom. So it's hard for these "whites" to make that switch so fast, that this black man may be "somebody". Blacks from outside of Mass. think that the entire state is liberal and the bastion of education. The small city of Boston is the "bastion". The rest of the workforce comes from outside the city. Boston is really two cities, the students who come from other states, and those that grew up there.

There are blacks who grew up insulated, in a black middle class, or their family kept them among the "right" blacks (segregation within segregation).... So these "segregated" blacks think they're different from other blacks, and are shocked when they are treated the same.

When a younger brother came to visit one Christmas from Morehouse, and maybe he too was sheltered because he attended a private school in Mass. And the bouncer wouldn't let him into a club, because he forgot his "college ID". I knew the deal, and my brother got in. Was it b/c of my education, that I was able to handle this situation? No, it was b/c of my small town/working class upbringing, that I knew this bouncer's outlook. I was able to stand in the bouncer's shoes, and viewed the situation from his background.

(And I know in the heat of the moment, it's hard to stand in the other person's shoes.)

The "shock" of being treated like other blacks, prevents the "class blacks" from being able to handle DWB or other situations. Maybe it's because I grew up knowing that I would always be treated as black first, and my qualifications second, I don't have a problem if I'm pulled over when visiting Mass., or if I'm in a car when my brother is pulled over in his Mercedes.

For Professor Gates, and other "class blacks", it's the shock that may escalate a situation. I don't know why, with all the education that we have, forget that we're "black" first, when that's the first thing that comes to some other people's minds.

Of course with this disclaimer, I love my home state. It has taught me a lot, such that there aren't two worlds. I know that in the end we're all the same, but at the same time I'm able recognize that we may have different outlooks. Growing up with working class whites, is not another world to me. I think the mistake that "class blacks" make, is they only know how to move about in their protected walls (campuses, corporations, etc), where everyone knows your name. And they forget how to move outside those walls---the rest of the world.

From Oprah to Gates, please get over your shock that you were treated as a black person. Because it is really Gates who was color blinded by class.

My friends are from all races. And it's funny because if I ever do talk about race (which is rare now), I could do so more with my white friends, because my "class blacks" want to complain: I can't believe so and so with a PhD was denied entrance to a party, etc. Versus what's going on in Sudan or Chechnya. But it seems to me now, that some "educated" blacks need training or at least to know: not to live in the world as it should be, but live in the world as it is. And most importantly for all of us, no matter the race or religion, to know that we do not all share the same background, but we can all find common ground. Read more ›

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book....Must Read May 14, 2011

By readingaddict

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This was an eye opening book regarding law enforcement and race.
I highly recommend reading this book and sharing it with friends or a book club and start a discussion about the issues raised in this book.
This book offers an opportunity to see issues from a different perspective and to also have empathy and understanding where before it might not exist.
One of the best books I have every read.