WASHINGTON — A national furor over race relations paused Thursday as President Obama, in a shady spot on the White House lawn near the Rose Garden, sat down for beers with a black Harvard professor and the white police officer who arrested him two weeks ago.
For the two men who raised their mugs with the president and vice president -- both guests dressed in suits and ties and sitting stiffly in what was meant to be a casual moment -- the discussion of race and policing will go on. Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department said afterward that he and African American studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. had made plans to talk further in a more private setting.
But for Obama, the most anticipated happy hour in recent memory threatens to be little more than a timeout in an ongoing discussion over race in America. Last week, the president uncharacteristically helped escalate the debate by saying during a news conference that Cambridge police had "acted stupidly" in arresting the black professor on disorderly conduct charges at his own home.
It was the most overt involvement yet by the country's first black president in a racially charged matter, and Obama has tried over the last week to ease the controversy -- most notably by saying he regretted his choice of words and setting up what came to known as a "beer summit."
Although police have dropped the charges against Gates, the question of whether he was arrested because he was black has become a national topic.
Thursday's get-together had been described by the White House as a "teachable moment," and it seemed designed to defuse the matter.
A small group of photographers and reporters was permitted to witness the meeting for about 30 seconds and from about 50 feet away -- transmitting to the world a snapshot of Obama, in shirt sleeves, seated at an oval table with the now-famous pair and Vice President Joe Biden, who was also in shirt sleeves and drank a nonalcoholic beer.
Gates and Crowley appeared to talk seriously, and, at one point, Obama gave a hearty laugh.
The officer and the professor later expressed appreciation for Obama's invitation, even if they did not agree on the circumstances that led Crowley to handcuff Gates on July 16.
Crowley called the discussion Thursday "cordial and productive," although he said he exchanged no apologies with Gates.
