February 25, 2000

Perceived Slight May Produce a Gain for Yale's African-American-Studies Program

By COURTNEY LEATHERMAN

A Yale University ceremony this month was intended to honor Henry Louis Gates Jr., head of the Afro-American-studies department at Harvard University, and a Yale graduate. Instead, it offended the head of Yale's own African-American-studies program so much that she announced that she was stepping down from her post.

Last week, Hazel V. Carby changed her mind -- a surprising about-face for a woman who had questioned Yale's commitment to black studies only six