Henry Louis Gates Jr. facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Henry Louis Gates Jr.
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Gates in 2013
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| Born | September 16, 1950 Keyser, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Nickname | Skip Gates |
| Occupation |
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| Education | Potomac State College Yale University (BA) Clare College, Cambridge (MA, PhD) |
| Genre | Essay, history, literature |
| Subject | African-American Studies |
| Notable works | The Signifying Monkey (1988) |
| Spouses |
Sharon Lynn Adams
(m. 1979; div. 1999)Marial Iglesias Utset
(m. 2021) |
| Children | 2 |
Henry Louis Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950), often called "Skip", is an American writer, professor, historian, and filmmaker. He works at Harvard University as a special professor and leads the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. He is known for finding some of the first novels written by African Americans. He has also written a lot about making sure African-American literature is recognized as an important part of world literature.
Since 2012, Gates has hosted the TV show Finding Your Roots on PBS. In this show, experts use family history, old records, and even DNA to help famous people learn about their ancestors. It's like a detective story about their family trees!
Contents
Early Life and Education
Gates was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, West Virginia. He grew up in a nearby town called Piedmont. His dad worked in a paper factory, and his mom cleaned houses.
Later, Gates learned through DNA tests that some of his family came from the Yoruba people in West Africa. He also found out that about half of his family came from Europe, including some Irish ancestors. Even with this mix, he identifies as Black because that's the community he grew up in.
When he was 14, Gates hurt his right hip playing touch football. Doctors didn't figure out what was wrong for a while. Because of the injury, his right leg ended up being two inches shorter than his left. He now uses a cane to help him walk.
After finishing high school in 1968, Gates went to Potomac State College. Then he moved to Yale University, where he earned a degree in history in 1973. He then became the first African American to get a special scholarship from the Mellon Foundation. This allowed him to study in England at Clare College, Cambridge, where he earned his master's degree in 1974 and his PhD in 1979.
Amazing Career Achievements
After a short time at Yale Law School, Gates decided to focus on other studies. In 1975, he started working at Yale's Afro-American Studies department. He quickly moved up and became a professor in both English and Afro-American Studies in 1979. While at Yale, he even helped guide actress Jodie Foster with her studies.
In 1984, Gates moved to Cornell University to teach. He stayed there until 1989.
After teaching at Duke University for two years, he joined Harvard University in 1991. At Harvard, he teaches students and leads the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. He was given a special title, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, in 2006.
As a literary expert, Gates studies how stories and writings are put together. He uses ideas from African traditions to understand texts. He believes that Black literature should be judged by its own cultural standards, not just by European ones. In his important book, The Signifying Monkey, he explored what makes African-American culture special. He talked about "signifyin'", which means understanding words based on their hidden meanings within a culture.
Gates believes that Black literature should be included in the wider collection of important books, not kept separate. He thinks that all American literature, whether by Black or white authors, influences each other. He said that a truly complete collection of American literature is good for everyone.
Gates has also said that teaching only about one culture (like Afrocentrism) can create unfair ideas. He believes it's "silly" to think that only Black people can study African and African-American literature. He compares it to saying he couldn't enjoy Shakespeare because he's not Anglo-Saxon.
Gates has worked hard to find and save old writings. He helped create a digital library of Black newspapers and magazines. He also helped Harvard get a huge collection of art showing Black people throughout history.
As a special researcher, Gates found Our Nig, a novel written by Harriet E. Wilson in 1859. It was thought to be the first novel by an African American in the U.S. Later, he found and proved the truth of The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts. This book might have been written even earlier, around 1853, which would make it the first. The Bondwoman's Narrative became a bestseller when it was published in 2002.
Gates has also written articles defending rap music and criticizing young Black people for valuing basketball over education. In 1992, he won an award for his writings in The New York Times. He even spoke in court to defend the rap group 2 Live Crew, explaining that their music had important roots in African-American language and traditions.
In 2003, Gates wrote a book called The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, about an early African-American poet. In July 2022, he announced he would be the main editor for a new dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. This dictionary will include popular words and phrases used by Black Americans throughout history.
Other Activities and TV Shows
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In 1995, Gates hosted a BBC show called Great Railway Journeys. He traveled 3,000 miles through Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania. This trip was special because 25 years earlier, when he was 19, he had worked at a hospital in Tanzania.
Gates also hosted and helped produce African American Lives (2006) and African American Lives 2 (2008). In these shows, he used family history and DNA tests to trace the family trees of famous African Americans. In the first series, Gates found out he had both European and African ancestors. He even learned he was related to a soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War!
In the second season, Gates discovered he might be related to an old Irish king. He also learned that one of his African ancestors was from the Yoruba people. These shows helped explain the many different family backgrounds of African Americans.
In 2010, Gates hosted Faces of America on PBS. This show looked at the family histories of 12 famous North Americans from different backgrounds, like Stephen Colbert and Meryl Streep.
Since 2012, he has been the host of the popular PBS show, Finding Your Roots – with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. The show helps guests discover amazing facts about their family history.
Gates also wrote and hosted the six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross. This series explored 500 years of African-American history. It won a Peabody Award and an NAACP Image Award.
In 2022 and 2023, Gates helped create AP African American Studies, a new college-level course for high school students.
Important Discussions
In 2010, Gates wrote an article in The New York Times about the role Africans played in the Atlantic slave trade. He talked about how hard it is to decide if descendants of American slaves should get money for the unpaid work of their ancestors. He also noted that it's tough to figure out who should get paid and who should pay, since slavery was legal back then.
Gates believes that people should think for themselves and not just follow what a group thinks. He said that some people were very angry at him for pointing out that Africans also sold other Africans into slavery. He explained that we need to move past the idea of "evil white people and good Black people" because the world is more complicated than that.
Some historians and writers disagreed with Gates, saying that the role of Africans in the slave trade was already well-known. Others argued that even if Africans were involved, the United States benefited the most from slavery and should be the main one to make up for it.
Cambridge Incident
On July 16, 2009, after a trip, Gates returned to his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His front door was stuck, and his taxi driver tried to help him open it. Someone passing by thought they saw a break-in and called the police. Police officers arrived, and after a discussion, Gates was arrested. The charges were later dropped.
This event caused a lot of talk across the United States about race relations and police work. The arrest became a big news story after U.S. President Barack Obama said that the police "acted stupidly." President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden later invited Gates and the police officer involved to have a beer with them at the White House, which they did.
Personal Life
Gates married Sharon Lynn Adams in 1979. They had two daughters before they divorced in 1999. Since 2021, Gates has been married to historian Dr. Marial Iglesias Utset.
In 1974, Gates learned a type of meditation. He described a powerful spiritual experience where he felt overwhelmed with emotion and tears. He said it was an "astonishing" moment of deep feeling.
Gates is a distant relative of the actor John Lithgow.
Awards and Honors
Gates has received many awards and special degrees from universities, including his old school, the University of Cambridge.
- He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1981, which is a very special award for talented people.
- In 1989, he won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for helping to edit 30 books by Black women writers from the 1800s.
- He was chosen to be part of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.
- In 1997, Time magazine named him one of the "25 Most Influential Americans."
- Ebony magazine has listed him many times as one of the "100 Most Influential Black Americans."
- In 2002, he received the Jefferson Lecture, the highest honor for achievements in the humanities from the U.S. government.
- He received the National Humanities Medal in 1998.
- In 2008, he won the Ralph Lowell Award, the top honor in public television.
- In January 2008, Gates helped start The Root, a website that shares African-American viewpoints.
- He is on the boards of many important organizations, like the New York Public Library and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
- In 2006, Gates joined the Sons of the American Revolution after finding out his family was connected to a free African American who fought in the Revolutionary War.
- In 2010, Gates became the first African American to have his entire genome (all his DNA) mapped out.
- His PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, won a Peabody Award and an NAACP Image Award in 2013.
- In 2019, he received the Chicago Tribune Literary Award for his lifetime achievements in writing.
- In 2021, he received the American Spirit Award from the National World War Two Museum.
- In 2024, Gates was awarded the prestigious Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement.
- In 2025, Gates was awarded the Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Literary Scholarship.
Filmography
- From Great Zimbabwe to Kilimatinde (1996) – Narrator and writer for a BBC/PBS series.
- Wonders of the African World (1999) – Writer and narrator for a six-part BBC/PBS series.
- America Beyond the Color Line (2004) – Host and writer for a four-part BBC2/PBS series.
- African American Lives (2006) – Writer, host, and narrator for a four-hour PBS series.
- African American Lives 2 (2008) – Host and narrator for a four-hour PBS series.
- Looking for Lincoln (2009) – Writer, host, and co-producer for PBS.
- Faces of America (2010) – Writer, narrator, and co-producer for a four-hour PBS series.
- Black in Latin America (2011) – Executive producer, writer, and presenter for PBS.
- Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2012–present) – Executive producer, writer, and host for PBS.
- The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013) – Executive producer, writer, and host for a six-part PBS series.
- Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise (2016) – Writer, presenter, and narrator for a four-part PBS series.
- Africa's Great Civilizations (2017) – Executive producer, writer, and presenter for a six-part PBS series.
- Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (2019) – Executive producer and presenter for a four-hour PBS series.
- Watchmen (2019) – Actor in an HBO television series (a small role as a fictional version of himself).
- Making Black America: Through the Grapevine (2022) – Host and writer for a four-part PBS series.
- The Simpsons (2023) – Voice of himself in an episode.
- Great Migrations: A People on the Move (2025) – Host for a four-part PBS series.
Images for kids
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Gates in 2007
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Gates, Sgt. James Crowley and President Barack Obama toast at the start of their meeting in the White House Rose Garden, July 30, 2009
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Gates speaks on a panel about race in America on the Understanding Our World Stage at the National Book Festival on August 31, 2019
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Gates accepts the Peabody Award for The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross
See also
In Spanish: Henry Louis Gates para niños
