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And the only reason that I started making the series that became "Finding Your Roots" is because of that obituary and that photograph. Wants W. E. B. DuBois, Wole Soyinka and Phyllis Wheatley on the Nation's Reading Lists, As Well As Western Classics like Milton and Shakespeare". And on my desk set a red Webster's dictionary. Professor Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard and has produced numerous books and documentaries about African-American history. But I think that Donald Trump's rhetoric and some of his actions - for instance, after Charlottesville - encourage unfavorable race relations in the United States. 22,158 talking about this. And there were a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump as a repudiation vote. While assignment to the haplogroup L3x, for example, indicates an ancestor in what is now Ethiopia at least 50,000 years ago, this interesting detail does not fill in the contours of the family tree. Gates says John Morton Blum, a professor in Yale's history department, was his mentor. (Read Henry Louis Gates, Jr.s Britannica essay on Monuments of Hope.). GATES: And, you know, what's even more amazing, it's - one, it was my mother's third great grandfather - my fourth great grandfather. One episode this season explores Gates' own DNA and family history. We fought to keep the pipeline of opportunity open, and, despite our ideological differences, we found a way to link arms against every form of bigotry.. This is FRESH AIR. Biology matters. So that was a steal. And at this point, I'd run over to my mother and say, Mama, I'll never pass for white, Mama. In 1984, Gates was recruited by Cornell University with an offer of tenure; Gates asked Yale whether the university would match Cornell's offer, but they declined. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. And one of the, you know, wonderful people on "The View" said did I think that Donald Trump is racist. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (born September 16, 1950, Keyser, West Virginia, U.S.), American literary critic and scholar known for his pioneering theories of African and African American literature. You know, no matter how different we appear phenotypically, under the skin we're 99.99 percent the same. In the first series, Gates learned that he has 50% European ancestry[22] and 50% African ancestry. Since 2012, he has hosted a PBS television series, entitled Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr..[24] The second season of the series, featuring 30 prominent guests across 10 episodes, with Gates as the narrator, interviewer, and genealogical investigator, aired on PBS in fall 2014. "[7], Gates has argued that a separatist, Afrocentric education perpetuates racist stereotypes. [7] In his major scholarly work, The Signifying Monkey, a 1989 American Book Award winner, Gates expressed what might constitute an African-American cultural aesthetic. GATES: I did an episode with Oprah and Quincy Jones and Bishop T.D. In some instances, we are left wanting to know much more. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. Testing showed he had ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa, Ireland and England. He also learned that one of his African ancestors includes a Yoruba man who was trafficked to America from Ouidah in present-day Republic of Benin. Because of the injury, Gates now uses a cane when he walks.[6][7]. Graduated from Piedmont High School in 1968, Gates attended Potomac State College of West Virginia University before transferring to Yale University, from which, in 1973, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in history, summa cum laude, and he gained membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. He has learned that he is also connected to the multiracial West Virginia community of Chestnut Ridge people. This ancestor was Vivians maternal great-great grandmother, a Black woman named Sarah Shields, whom Rosanne learned about for the first time ever during an episode of the PBS show Finding Your Rootsthat aired in Feb. 2021. GROSS: Yeah. GROSS: But you had family that passed for white. And she and Claudette Colbert are both unmarried mothers. When I did Morgan Freeman's family tree, it was obvious through his DNA that he was descended from a white man who was an overseer on a plantation in Mississippi. As soon as the Civil War ended, they became common law husband and wife GATES: Which was illegal in Mississippi. Or even to the slave narrative of Venture Smith, in which blacks are purchased by other blacks for both slavery and freedom. We are unable to fully display the content of this page. GROSS: OK. In a February episode of the PBS show, "Finding Your Roots," host and historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. presented Rosanne Cash with her DNA results and family genealogy. 10. In 2021, Gates received the PBS Beacon Award. GROSS: So having done your, like, ancestry and everything, were you close to your parents? Other works by Gates included Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (1994), Colored People: A Memoir (1994), The Future of the Race (1996; with Cornel West), Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man (1997), The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: Americas First Black Poet and Her Encounters with the Founding Fathers (2003), America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans (2004), In Search of Our Roots (2009), and Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow (2019). African-Americans all think that they're a descendant from a Native American. And you got this from the 1870 census - (reading) that Jane Gates, age 51, female, mulatto, laundress and nurse, owns real estate valued at $1,400; born in Maryland; cannot read or write. In 1989, Gates won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for editing the 30 volumes of "The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers". They - but you're absolutely right. After turning that corner, Sharon gave birth to Maggie, their first daughter, in July 1980, and Liza was born 18 months later. GATES: And then there was "The Late Late Show." In Wednesday's press conference, President Obama called the Cambridge Police Department "stupid" for arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Before the PBS episode, the world only knew that Vivian was reported to be of Sicilian heritage on her dads side, and German/Irish on her mothers side. In some states - like, New York would let them vote sometimes, and then take it away. Thank you so much for accepting this award. My mother was a seamstress, as you know. So you found out that your ancestors were, like, 18 miles away from where you lived. Gates graduated as valedictorian of his high school class in 1968 and attended a local junior college before enrolling at Yale University, where he received a bachelors degree in history in 1973. When my daughters were born, I had them tested for sickle cell because - black people are not the only people in the world that have sickle cell. Fifty or a hundred years from now, he explains, my hope for the present generation is that a future Du Bois will look back on our time and say that, in this era of fracture, we drew a line. Armstrong Williams, a person I really admire and like, I ask him, and he said absolutely not. GROSS: OK. Race is a social construction. We started to roll. In addition to producing and hosting previous series on the history and genealogy of prominent American figures, since 2012, Gates has been host of the television series Finding Your Roots on PBS. This program examined the genealogy of 12 North Americans of diverse ancestry: Elizabeth Alexander, Mario Batali, Stephen Colbert, Louise Erdrich, Malcolm Gladwell, Eva Longoria, Yo-Yo Ma, Mike Nichols, Queen Noor of Jordan, Mehmet Oz, Meryl Streep, and Kristi Yamaguchi. Gates argued that the pervasiveness and centrality of signifyin in African and African American literature and music means that all such expression is essentially a kind of dialogue with the literature and music of the past. The daughter of prominent black scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said her father's arrest last week at his Cambridge home has deeply saddened him. 266. It's a horrible way to start, in a way. President Barack Obama, a friend of Gates, said that the Cambridge Police Department had acted "stupidly" in the arrest. And so then they came in - this is a big deal back in 2008. GATES: So if you were a Martian and came down to look at my DNA results, you'd think I was a white boy, you know? This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. An X-ray showed a bright portion that revealed just how much of her brain tissue was destroyed. What do you think of that? The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song was published in 2021. GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. Gates considers himself a literary critic and educator. In 2020, Gates was honored with the Louis Stokes Community VisionaryAward. It was just misdiagnosed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. [11] Additionally, he is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. And what's the real showstopper for me is the fact that my three sets of my fourth great grandparents lived 18 miles from where I was born. And I'm wondering if being laid up from an injury for a while affected your desire to - and your time to immerse yourself in books. Discomfort is also experienced by the viewer. It's beautiful. When asked by National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Bruce Cole to describe his work, Gates responded: "I would say I'm a literary critic. GATES: Well, the average African-American GATES: The average African-American is 24 percent European. I could've won the Nobel Prize, and somebody would say congratulations. From Blum, he says, he learned a lot about writing and history. GROSS: But you also wanted to know who were your African ancestors. We delineate our individual and collective identities based upon inclusion in and exclusion from groups. And I was just overwhelmed with emotion. GATES: He wasn't even out the door, and I moved into his bedroom. GROSS: OK, for two weeks. You have to get permission. So I'm out there. Historical evidence suggests that intraracial slavery was uncommon, and that when it did occur, sometimes free men and women of color purchased enslaved relatives and friends to rescue them from the cruelty of the chattel system, if not the social death of slave status. Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. On DNA Testing And Finding His Own I think it's vulgar and racist whether it comes out of a Black mouth or a white mouth. [10] At Harvard, Gates teaches undergraduate and graduate courses as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, an endowed chair he was appointed to in 2006, and as a professor of English. And we'd have the chess board set up. Gates also notes that it is equally difficult to decide who should get such reparations and who should pay them, as slavery was legal under the laws of the colonies and the United States. He's received 50 honorary degrees from such institutions as Harvard University and Williams College. His name was John Redman. As of February 2022, Gates, 71, serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and as the Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.. It measures your ancestry back 500 years approximately. And the title is Race Is A Social Construction, But Mutations Are Real" (ph). It's called the Beer Summit. Will we reach consilience"William Whewells term for the combining of information from different domains toward the unity of knowledgebetween conventional and genetic genealogy (and, moreover, among the types of genetic analysis at play)? Gates's web series, "Black History in Two Minutes (Or So)", which he executive produces with Robert F. Smith and Dyllan McGee, earned five Webby Awards, including for Best Podcast: Documentary and Best Video Series: Education & Discovery (2020), Best Podcast: Documentary and Best Social Video: Discovery & Education (2021) and Best Social Video: Discovery & Education (2022). Barack Obama. And the last thing I did before I went to bed was - we always had a desk in our bedrooms and had a bookcase. The show makes use of gene-sequencing techniques that have become widely available since African American Lives first aired, like whole-genome sequencing, which entails the mapping of all six billion base pairs in a persons DNA. ", The lesson of "Finding Your Roots" - we're all immigrants. And I was shocked by that. Signifyin is the practice of representing an idea indirectly, through a commentary that is often humourous, boastful, insulting, or provocative. I love you being black. Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Head Negro In Charge. The womans suffering is assuaged at long last when she revisits the land and people that indelibly shaped her, including a local herbal healer. Updates? It's incredible that the mystery to my family tree - I'm looking toward Africa, and it was 18 miles away in Moorefield, W.Va., County Courthouse. GROSS: It's mind-boggling. And I would watch this beautiful, brilliant goddess. GATES: And we - they only put - remember "The Late Show"? So you GATES: Because of this white man. Henry Louis Gates Bio, Wiki, Age, Wife, Finding Your Roots, and Net Worth GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. 7. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. NPR's Michel Martin speaks with professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. about the forthcoming episode of Finding Your Roots which features actor Joe Manganiello discovering he is of African descent. And she come to - it's the woman who invents box pancake mix - right? Contemporary Literature. And I showed up from Yale, and he became my mentor. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is an American literary critic and scholar who is known for his pioneering theories of African literatures and African American literature. doi:10.2307/1208745. It was a horrible, horrible thing. Faces expands on those outings in topic and technique, branching out from the genealogies of prominent blacks to those of a multiracial, multiethnic group of notables, including the actors Eva Longoria and Meryl Streep, the writers Louise Erdrich and Malcolm Gladwell, the musician Yo-Yo Ma, the poet and scholar Elizabeth Alexander, the comedian Stephen Colbert, and Gates himself. We have the great privilege of having Professor Henry Louis Gates, of Harvard University, the Director of the W.B. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is an American literary critic Credit: Getty What is Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s net worth? [25][26][27] Finding Your Roots resumed in January 2016.[28]. But then President Obama called you both together. While Gates has stressed the need for greater recognition of Black literature and Black culture, he does not advocate a "separatist" Black canon. But I think that you should have to get permission before someone is creeping around in your DNA. Obama then held a much-publicized meeting with Gates and James Crowley, the officer who had arrested Gates, which became informally known as the beer summit because Obama invited the two for beers in the White House Rose Garden. Sunday Notes - uristocrat.com Remember all the talk about post-racialism that GATES: We thought when Obama - we had turned a corner, and we could, you know, beat our - the plowshares into pruning hooks - right? But mutations exist. Additionally, he has worked to bring about social, educational, and intellectual equality for Black Americans. You might have prostate cancer that runs in your family. - like the Bible says? Now you can get a full sequence for less than $5,000 - some people say $1,000 or $2,000. GATES: For which she paid cash. It's - remember, it's - my father dragged my brother and me upstairs in his parents' home and made us wait why he'd look through half a dozen of his father's scrapbooks, about which we knew nothing - complete mystery, a secret to us - looking for that obituary. A collection of moments during and after Barack Obama's presidency. [5], At the age of 14, Gates was injured playing touch football, fracturing the ball and socket joint of his right hip, resulting in a slipped capital femoral epiphysis. GROSS: And it was reported as if it was a break-in, and a police officer came and arrested you. Professor Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard and has produced numerous books and documentaries about African-American history. He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Kids don't even know what they are anymore, but everybody here does. The new season of his TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now showing on PBS. And she invents this pancake mix, and they become fabulously wealthy. And I was in the hospital for six weeks. It was astonishing. Gates has such an eminent reputation", she said, "and so much gravitas. And I sat down. My mother used to read me - the greatest book ever written to me was "The Poky Little Puppy," right? This is FRESH AIR. "[14], As a mediator between those advocating separatism and those believing in a Western canon, Gates has been criticized by both. I hope you never come back, you know? The event led to public criticism of the Cambridge police department by U.S. Pres. And she dies of a broken heart because her little girl passes for white and goes off - and never sees her again. We might think of Faces of America, then, as an allegory of the simultaneous diversity of our experiences and the deep interpenetration of our histories. GROSS: Is that too personal? Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. And then he'd - and I read quite a lot. GATES: Yeah. And I loved the news. GATES: I go, yeah, I got a brother who's a dentist, you know? They had two geneticists. GATES: They don't do that anymore for this particular kind of - I had a broken hip. In 2021, Gates was named a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and elected to the Johnsonsians (Society). Well, I'll tell you a funny story. GROSS: So given this kind of really rich mix that you've just described and all the surprises that you've just described, what does race mean to you? So I would say, you know, no, I don't think so. Now she was born in 1819; died in 1888. But the ancestry is being investigated against the will of the people being outed. - like the Aunt Jemima figure. Would you do it? I only did black people. www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots Posts Reels Videos Tagged DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. GROSS: Yeah. At the time, only Vivians European background had been known, and this discovery in her ancestryresurfaced thanks to a profile on Johnnys first wife in The Washington Poston May 16. or subscribe. After receiving a doctoral degree in English language and literature in 1979, Gates taught literature and African American studies at Yale University, Cornell University, Duke University, and Harvard University, where he was appointed W.E.B. We know that BRCA1, BRCA2 - they're genetic. [35] As of 2021, Gates is married to historian Dr. Marial Iglesias Utset. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., called the book "an attempt to size Lincoln up through the eyes of Black Americans who visited the 'people's house' that their people had built and in whose names they were determined to win the fight for freedom and citizenship." Malcolm Gladwell hears some shocking news in Gates's latest PBS show. Over . At the age of 14, Gates suffered a hairline fracture of the ball-and-socket joint in his hip while playing touch football. And under the skin, we are almost identical genetically. GATES: That was one of the happiest days of my life when my brother went to dental school. It's a gift - and for my mom. As a literary historian committed to the preservation and study of historical texts, Gates has been integral to the Black Periodical Literature Project, a digital archive of Black newspapers and magazines created with financial assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Transcript: Q&A with Henry Louis Gates Jr. January 16, 2009 Greg Hicks: Everyone welcome, this is a very special moment for us and we really want this to be just as informal as possible. Cameo as a digital presentation of a fictional version of himself as, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 15:56. In 2006, Gates wrote and produced the PBS documentary "African American Lives," the first documentary series to use genealogy and genetic science to provide an understanding of African-American history. And you don't have a Y DNA, so that's why you're a woman. Gatess own genealogical narrative, unfurled against the backdrop of images of his family gathering in the kitchen or tender interactions with his nonagenarian father, Henry Louis Gates Sr., is also quite moving. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: "Colored People" All that was on still in 1965 in syndication. In the years that followed he earned a reputation as a literary archaeologist by recovering and collecting thousands of lost literary works (short stories, poems, reviews, and notices) by African American authors dating from the early 19th to the mid-20th century. Sgt. 35 (1): 212227. And that night - and then daddy showed my brother and me, Dr. Paul Gates now, chief of dentistry at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital GATES: Well, it's the spirit of my mother. [33], Gates married Sharon Lynn Adams in 1979. And she's the cook for Claudette Colbert. It's a lot of data to process. And they got the brothers in uniforms with swords and stuff coming out of the church with this sad, black church music. Clarke, Breena, and Susan Tifft, "A 'Race Man' Argues for a Broader Curriculum: Henry Louis Gates Jr. That's not the way it was. And your driver was helping you - well, he was shoving his shoulder against the door trying to open it. President Obama's comments on Gates's arrest. So let's get back to your great-great-grandmother. Later, he acquired and authenticated the manuscript of The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, a novel from the same period that scholars believe may have been written as early as 1853. Is this instance of intraracial slavery an anomaly? Following a two-year stay at Duke University, he was recruited to Harvard University in 1991. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and professor at Harvard University, the seriess subtitles"The Promise of America, Making America, Becoming American, and Know Thyself"suggest assimilation, a melting pot rather than a tossed salad notion of the United States. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. How 'Finding Your Roots' became a cultural phenomenon Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Terry spoke to Henry Louis Gates in front of an audience last May when he was in Philadelphia to receive WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. GATES: admixture, I'm 50 percent sub-Saharan African and 50 percent European and virtually no Native American ancestry, which really pisses my family off. In front of all these people and all these viewers. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. - Britannica Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren, Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter, Rosanne Cash: 5 Things To Know About Johnnys Daughter Whos Speaking Out About His June Carter Affair, 'Finding Your Roots' Preview: Jeff Goldblum Reveals How His Mom Helped Him Fight A Bully, Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren, Beautiful Nature-Inspired Baby Names Used By Celebrity Parents, Did Vanderpump Rules Tom Cheated on Ariana With Raquel? Terry. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born Sept. 16, 1950, in Keyser, W.Va. His father worked at the local paper mill during the day and as a janitor at a telephone company at night. And I hope they are. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, African American who fought in the Revolutionary War, Alfred I. duPontColumbia University Award, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, The National Institute of Social Sciences, Who's Black and Why: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race. 10 Things You Didn't Know About Henry Louis Gates Jr. More than anyone else, the historian is responsible for "entertaining the idea remotely" that Gates could become a writer. Gates hosted Faces of America, a four-part series presented by PBS in 2010. And, although full genome sequencing is becoming more common and affordable, haplotype grouping relies upon the more narrow analysis of mtDNA and Y-DNA. 8. GROSS: And I read you talking about this. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. | Cambridge MA - Facebook Gates and daughter vie on the Vineyard. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Louis-Gates-Jr. African American Registry - Biography of Herny Louis Gates, Jr. Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. Du Bois Center there at Harvard, one of Henry Louis Gates Jr. - Wikipedia Thank God. of Hutchins Center at @harvard. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. You said that after - you had been getting death threats and these angry emails and everything. He notably explored genealogy as host of the series African American Lives (200608), Faces of America (2010), and Finding Your Roots (2012 ). GROSS: I've interviewed many people over the years. Episode 1409A -- Pictured in this screengrab: Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. During an interview on February 22, 2021 -- And a doctor from the Philippines taught me to play chess at West Virginia University Medical Center in Morgantown, W.Va. And he'd come around in rounds. He's also written for Time magazine, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. And your father was a tailor, which is why we GATES: And my mother went to Atlantic City. Henry Louis Gates Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images He was there in exile because he had been in prison and to be offering civil war for 27 months and was given a fellowship at the University of Cambridge. I mean, they know Donald Trump. So then I became close to them but in two completely different ways. Henry Louis Gates Daughters Elizabeth is in her twenties and suffered a severe stroke in May 2010.