July 30, 2009

(CBS News) President Barack Obama hopes a private round of beers at the White House will put a racial controversy to rest. He's hosting the black Harvard professor who was arrested by Cambridge police in his own home, and the officer who arrested him.

The police deny race was a factor. They say the educator was belligerent. The President stepped in to the debate last week, and now
hopes to settle the controversy. President Obama hopes a round of drinks will turn a political mis-step into an understanding.

Thursday night, he's bringing Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Junior and Police Sergeant James Crowley to the White House for a talk about race relations, over a beer. They'll get together around a picnic table outside the Oval Office if it doesn't rain.

"The President will drink Bud Light. Professor Gate said he liked Red Stripe, and I believe Sgt. Crowley mentioned to the President that he liked Blue Moon," said Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Gates accused Crowley of racism after he arrested the professor in his own home. The sergeant was responding to a report of a possible break-in. He says the professor was belligerent and disorderly.

President Obama pushed the story into the national spotlight after he said in his news conference last week that the police acted "stupidly". Just two days later he tried to smooth things over.

"My sense is that you've got two good people, neither of whom were able to resolve the situation in a way they wanted it to be resolved," said President Obama.

But the debate raged on. A Boston police officer could lose his job after sending colleagues an email using a racial slur to describe Gates.

"Community policing is based on trust. This type of venomous rhetoric is severely damaging, " said Edward Davis, the Boston Police Commissioner.

Boston's police commissioner reached out to Gates and apologized. He says Gates accepted that apology.

The White House insists President Obama won't push for more apologies Thursday night. Aides say, the only thing on the agenda is some cold beer.