Summers pledged his continued support for the department and for the field in yesterday’s statement.

“Harvard University is committed to remaining preeminent in Afro-American studies,” he said. “I am delighted that Professor Gates will continue his leadership of our Department of Afro-American Studies and of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research.”

But concerns about Summers’ actions toward the department linger for members of the department.

Professor of Anthropology and of Afro-American Studies J. Loran Matory said he is “concerned there has been pressure from the president’s office to make appointments favorable to his political opinions.”

“I’d like to make sure the integrity of the process by which the most excellent scholars of Af-Am are selected is preserved and supported,” Matory said.

Another major factor in Gates’ decision was his close scholarly relationship with former Carswell Professor of Philosophy K. Anthony Appiah.

The two have been close friends, colleagues and collaborators on scholarly projects since they met as students at Cambridge University in 1973. They have spent most of their academic careers working at the same institutions. Appiah’s departure for Princeton was an incentive for Gates to migrate south.

But Gates said yesterday he had come to realize that the physical distance was not an insurmountable obstacle to their friendship.

“Anthony and I are best friends, and we will remain best friends no matter where we’re living,” he said.

The two will continue to work together on scholarly endeavors, including the second edition of Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, which they will begin work on this year.

The View from Princeton

Harvard’s avoided loss is Princeton’s missed gain.

Princeton has pledged to build up a stronger program in African-American studies. Their coups of Appiah and West last year were huge additions, and snagging Gates would have seriously called into question Harvard’s place as a leading center of black studies in the country.

Gates had nothing but flattering words for Princeton yesterday.

“There is no doubt that Princeton has emerged as a major center of Afro-American studies,” he said in a written statement. “We need multiple centers of excellence in our field, and Princeton is one of these.”