KC's Martin Luther King celebration schedule set

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Kansas City's Martin Luther King Jr. celebration will include a speech by Henry Louis Gates Jr., a prominent black scholar and Harvard professor who gained national attention when his arrest led to a "beer summit" at the White House.

Gates will be one of several speakers during the 10-day event, which will begin Jan. 7. Gates will speak Jan. 14.

The Kansas City Star reports that the events will include an urban summit, an interfaith service, a concert, a scholarship prayer breakfast and the annual Black Achievers dinner.

Gates was arrested in July 2009 at his home by Cambridge, Mass., by police investigating a possible break-in. He and the white officer who arrested him later met with President Barack Obama to discuss the racial implications of the incident.