Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Head Negro In Charge - Boston Magazine And when my grandparents came as immigrants, my family was able to assimilate pretty easily because we're white. This is called an admixture test. "[7], Gates has argued that a separatist, Afrocentric education perpetuates racist stereotypes. GATES: But I have an announcement to make GATES: For you. 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. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. In 2020, Gates was honored with the Louis Stokes Community VisionaryAward. 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? A new season of Finding Your Roots premieres January 4, 2022! His writing includes pieces in The New York Times that defend rap music and an article in Sports Illustrated that criticizes Black youth culture for glorifying basketball over education. And I watched reruns of early black films like "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah." GROSS: OK. GROSS: There's some people who are trying to use genealogy to out people who are white supremacists and say, oh, you think you're so pure white, that that's such a big deal? As a result of the injury, Gates walks with a cane and his right leg is more than 2 inches shorter than his left. My dad got into a public battle with the KKK and so I knew about that, and it was scary, Rosanne said during the PBS special. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Terry. [9] Gates accepted the offer by Cornell in 1985 and taught there until 1989. DAVIES: Henry Louis Gates speaking with Terry Gross in May of last year. Elizabeth Gates, the daughter of prominent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, is in her twenties and suffered a severe stroke just four months ago. And I was exhilarated. People might remember the Beer Summit, when you were stopped in your own home trying to unjam a lock after a long trip. GROSS: And I read you talking about this. 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? Gates serves as the chair for the Selection Committee for the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship Program that is sponsored by the Fletcher Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Fletcher Asset Management. But on the other hand, you can't say that biology doesn't matter because it does matter. Coproduced, hosted, and written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. The world just isn't like that. OK. GROSS: OK. On your mother's side, you found out that you had three men in the family who were freed slaves - freed before 1776. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. - Britannica [11] Additionally, he is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. GROSS: Terry Gross interviewed Henry Louis Gates last May when he was in Philadelphia to accept the WHYY Lifelong Learning Award. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows In 2021, Gates was named a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and elected to the Johnsonsians (Society). Gates has such an eminent reputation", she said, "and so much gravitas. You said that after - you had been getting death threats and these angry emails and everything. They flew him in from San Francisco. His early life is described in his memoir that is entitled, Colored People (1994). And I think that we throw terms like that around too loosely. Du Bois Center there at Harvard, one of Henry Louis Gates, Sr. (1913 - 2010) - Genealogy - geni family tree You might have breast cancer. In the show, notable guests discover their family roots based on genealogical research and DNA results. It's a horrible way to start, in a way. After turning that corner, Sharon gave birth to Maggie, their first daughter, in July 1980, and Liza was born 18 months later. 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. GROSS: Huge story. A passerby called police, reporting a possible break-in after describing to 911 "an individual" forcing the front door open. [4] He also learned that he has 50% European ancestry, including Irish forebears; he was surprised his European ancestry turned out to be so substantial. In 1992, he received a George Polk Award for his social commentary in The New York Times. And then when we go - when you were buried, she would stand up. I have a couple black friends - I went to Yale with Ben Carson and with Ben's wife. Ostensibly one familys illness narrative, the story is also an allegory about how the experience of migrationwhether forced through slavery, pogroms, or economic vulnerability, or motivated by hope for a better futuremay generate a latent or conscious yen for community. President Obama's comments on Gates's arrest. Also, journalist Brian Palmer talks about how slavery and the Civil War are described at Confederate historic sites in the South. In 2009, when I did "Faces Of America," a retail value of full genomic sequencing was $300,000. The book tells stories about Gates's parents, his lifelong nickname, Skippy, and his brother, Rocky. Both would be just as important. It comes from slavery. His work has rooted African-American literary criticism in the African-American vernacular tradition.[12]. In 2020, Gates earned a NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Literary Work Nonfiction for his book. In "Root Worker," a short . And I sat down. But we have a disproportionately higher risk of sickle cell. Is this instance of intraracial slavery an anomaly? Discomfort is also experienced by the viewer. Gates collaborates with genetic scientists, including Eric Lander and David Altshuler, of the Broad Institute of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Harvard professor George Church, progenitor of the Personal Genome Project; and personal genomics companies such as 23andMe and Knome Inc. At one point, Johnny even told the KKK in a statement that Vivian was white. But we can expect some acknowledgment and interpretation of technologys limits. ", The Letters page of The New York Times of April 25, 2010, featured criticism and examination of Gates's views in response to his op-ed. In some instances, we are left wanting to know much more. And it's for my father. And they would be published in the newspaper. 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. Or they stayed home, and they listened to or played music. His mother cleaned houses. And there were a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump as a repudiation vote. Barack Obama understood that and, I think, certainly helped our nation to heal. That's not the way it was. GATES: And we - they only put - remember "The Late Show"? 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. Contemporary Literature. And they stayed home, and they read. 6.4K views 13 years ago Elizabeth Gates, the daughter of arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates, takes a few minutes to call CNN from Martha's Vineyard and talk to Don Lemon about the. And my grandfather was so white, we called him Casper behind his back. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. And the last thing I did before I went to bed on July 2, 1960, was to look up the word estimable. Daughter Elizabeth Gates interviews her dad about . Gates was an Anisfield-Wolf prize winner in 1989 for The Schomburg Library of Women Writers. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. GATES: The Gateses all looked - my father looked white. Gates and daughter vie on the Vineyard. Malcolm Gladwell hears some shocking news in Gates's latest PBS show. 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. Gates hosted Faces of America, a four-part series presented by PBS in 2010. The program documents a 3,000-mile journey Gates took through Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania, with his then-wife, Sharon Adams, and daughters, Liza and Meggie Gates. He was 97, as you said. And she burst into tears because she used to read me that book all the time. GROSS: When you were 14, you had a football injury. 4. And I would watch this beautiful, brilliant goddess. Armstrong Williams, a person I really admire and like, I ask him, and he said absolutely not. And my Y DNA, which is - comes in an unbroken chain, descends from this Irishman. I killed my mama. 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. In 2020, Gates received the Muhammad Ali Voice of HumanityAward. GROSS: OK, for two weeks. 2. Yeah. So what I did - my father and I agreed, for science, that we'd put our genomes in the public domain so that any scholar or student can study our genome. 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. He introduced the notion of signifyin to represent African and African American literary and musical history as a continuing reflection and reinterpretation of what has come before. GROSS: And then your slightly more contemporary ancestors not having any rights in the country, you know, or very few rights - not being able to vote, having to live in segregation. Was Johnny Cash's first wife, Vivian, Black? Roseanne Cash learned the But we need to get some distance from the binary opposition we were raised in: evil white people and good Black people. But the ancestry is being investigated against the will of the people being outed. "My father was so sad. And she was a beautiful woman. This is FRESH AIR. 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. That's the way it is. In 1980 Gates became codirector of the Black Periodical Literature Project at Yale. 6. One of eight children born to Edward St. Lawrence Gates and Helen Gertrude Redman Gates, he was the youngest of seven sons. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Read about President Obama's comments on Gates's arrest. From Blum, he says, he learned a lot about writing and history. Over . You know, we used to say tribe, but now that's not politically correct - so the Yoruba ethnic group in Western Nigeria. He argues, "It can't be real as a subject if you have to look like the subject to be an expert in the subject,"[13] adding, "It's as ridiculous as if someone said I couldn't appreciate Shakespeare because I'm not Anglo-Saxon. 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. Updates? GROSS: So you know your medical background and if you're GATES: Yeah. Director, Hutchins Center, African & African American Research, Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard. They came in slave ships. I think you know where I'm heading here. So I want to read something that you wrote about her. A Stroke -- in Your Twenties? - CBS News 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.. [34] They had two daughters together before they divorced in 1999. They were buried next to each other. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise, "Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Biography, Books, & Facts", "African American Lives The Past Is Another Country 2 4of4 YouTube", "Finding Your Roots: Decoding Our Past Through DNA", "The biggest brother: interview with Henry Louis Gates, black America's foremost intellectual", "Yale Afro-Am Chair Resigns After Remarks of Yale Pres", "Henry Louis Gates Jr. to continue at Harvard", "Henry Louis Gates is Wrong about African Involvement in the Slave Trade", Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, "Henry Louis Gates Jr. announced as editor-in-chief of the new Oxford Dictionary of African American English", "What It Means to Be Black in Latin America", "Ben Affleck's slave-owning ancestor 'censored' from genealogy show", "Ben Affleck Demanded PBS Suppress His Slave-Owning Ancestry", "Citing Ben Affleck's 'Improper Influence,' PBS Suspends 'Finding Your Roots', "PBS' 'Finding Your Roots' returning in January after Ben Affleck controversy", "West Virginia Weslesyan College biography", "Black Studies' New Star: Henry Louis Gates Jr", "Henry Louis Gates Jr. On 'The Black Church' and His Own Bargain with Jesus", "MacArthur Fellos Program: Henry Louis Gates Jr. | Literary Critic | Class of June 1981", "Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement", "Mister Jefferson and The Trials of Phillis Wheatley,", "2015 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award Winners Announced", "Henry Louis Gates Jr. Receives duPont Award for The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross", "Read Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Acceptance Speech for the duPont Award", "Chicago Tribune Announces 2019 Literary and Heartland Award Winners", "Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Named Don M. Randel Award Recipient | News | The Harvard Crimson", "Encarta Africana, the First Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Black History and Culture, Launches Today", Bibliography of Gates's publications and responses to it, African American National Biography Project, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work Nonfiction, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Henry_Louis_Gates_Jr.&oldid=1142289654, African-American history of West Virginia, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellows, Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Television personalities from West Virginia, African-American television personalities, Members of the American Philosophical Society, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2009, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Gates has received numerous honorary degrees, including a.