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. |
| 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) is a famous American writer, professor, historian, and filmmaker. He works at Harvard University, where he leads the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. He also helps guide the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.
Gates is known for finding some of the oldest novels written by African Americans. He has also written a lot about making sure African-American books are recognized as important parts of world literature. Since 2012, he has hosted the TV show Finding Your Roots on PBS. This show uses experts in family history, history, and genetics to tell guests about their ancestors' lives.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Gates was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, West Virginia. His parents were Pauline Augusta (Coleman) Gates and Henry Louis Gates Sr. He grew up nearby in Piedmont. His father worked in a paper mill, and his mother 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 ancestors were European, including some Irish family members. Even though he has European ancestry, he identifies as Black because he grew up in an African-American community. He also learned he is connected to the multiracial community called the Chestnut Ridge people in West Virginia.
When Gates was 14, he broke his right hip playing touch football. A doctor first said his problem was "psychosomatic," which means it was all in his head. But the injury was real, and after it healed, his right leg was two inches shorter than his left. Because of this, Gates now uses a cane to walk.
After high school in 1968, Gates went to Potomac State College of West Virginia University for a year. Then he transferred to Yale University, graduating in 1973 with a degree in history. He was the first African American to receive a special fellowship from the Mellon Foundation. He used this to study English literature at Clare College, Cambridge in England, earning his master's degree in 1974 and his Ph.D. in 1979.
Career Highlights
After a short time at Yale Law School, Gates started working at Yale University in the Afro-American Studies department in 1975. He became a professor there in 1979. While at Yale, he helped guide actress Jodie Foster, who studied African-American Literature.
In 1985, Gates moved to Cornell University to teach. Then, in 1991, he joined Harvard University. At Harvard, he teaches students and leads the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
As a literary critic, Gates studies and writes about books. He combines different ways of looking at literature with African storytelling traditions. 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 unique. He explained how "signifyin'" (a way of using words that has hidden meanings) is important in African-American works.
Gates believes that Black literature should be recognized more and included in the larger group of important books from around the world. He thinks that American literature should include both white and Black texts. He has said that it's "ridiculous" to think that only Black people can be experts in African or African-American literature. He believes that if you have to look like the subject to be an expert, then it's not a real subject.
Gates has worked to save and study old historical texts. He helped create a digital library of Black newspapers and magazines. He also helped Harvard buy a large collection of art and documents about the image of Black people in Western art.
As a researcher, Gates found Our Nig (1859) by Harriet E. Wilson, which was thought to be the first novel written in the U.S. by an African American. Later, he found The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts, which might have been written even earlier, around 1853. If so, it would be the first. (Note: Clotel (1853) by William Wells Brown was the first published by an African-American author, but it was written and published in London.) The Bondwoman's Narrative became a bestseller when it was published in 2002.
Gates has also worked to create academic centers to study Black culture. He writes articles for newspapers like The New York Times, where he has defended rap music. He also wrote an article in Sports Illustrated that criticized young Black people for focusing too much on basketball instead of education. In 1992, he won an award for his social commentary.
In 2022, Gates announced he would be the main editor for the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. This new dictionary will include popular words and phrases used by Black Americans throughout history.
Other Activities
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In 1995, Gates hosted a BBC series called Great Railway Journeys. He traveled 3,000 miles through Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania with his family. This trip happened 25 years after he worked at a hospital in Tanzania when he was a 19-year-old student.
Gates was the host and producer of African American Lives (2006) and African American Lives 2 (2008). In these shows, he traced the family trees of famous African Americans using family history and DNA tests. In the first series, Gates found out he had 50% European ancestry and 50% African ancestry. He also learned he was related to John Redman, a Black veteran of the American Revolutionary War. Gates then joined the Sons of the American Revolution.
In the second season, Gates learned he might be related to an Irish king from the fourth century. He also found out one of his African ancestors was a Yoruba man brought to America from Africa. These shows helped explain the many different family backgrounds of African Americans.
Gates also hosted Faces of America in 2010, which looked at the family histories of 12 North Americans from different backgrounds, including Stephen Colbert and Meryl Streep.
Since 2012, he has hosted the PBS show Finding Your Roots – with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. The show's third season was delayed because actor Ben Affleck asked Gates to leave out information about his slave-owning ancestors. Finding Your Roots started again in January 2016.
Gates's six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, explored 500 years of African-American history. Gates wrote, produced, and hosted the series, which 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.
Discussion on Slavery
In 2010, Gates wrote an article in The New York Times about the role Africans played in the Atlantic slave trade. He discussed how difficult it is to decide about giving reparations (payments) to the descendants of American slaves. He noted that slavery was legal at the time.
Gates said that some people were very angry at him for pointing out that Africans also captured and sold other Africans into slavery. He believes it's important to understand that the world isn't simply "evil white people and good Black people." Other historians agreed that African involvement in the slave trade is well-known, but they also stressed that the United States benefited greatly from slavery and should be held responsible.
Cambridge Arrest
On July 16, 2009, Gates returned home to Cambridge, Massachusetts, after a trip. His front door was stuck, and his taxi driver tried to help him open it. A passerby called the police, reporting a possible break-in. Cambridge police arrived, and Gates was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The charges were later dropped.
This event caused a lot of discussion across the United States about race relations and law enforcement. President Barack Obama said the police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates. Later, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden invited Gates and the police officer involved to have a beer with them at the White House, which they accepted.
Personal Life
Gates married Sharon Lynn Adams in 1979. They had two daughters before divorcing in 1999. Since 2021, Gates has been married to historian Dr. Marial Iglesias Utset.
In 1974, Gates learned a meditation technique. He described having a powerful spiritual experience during this time. Gates is also a distant relative of the actor John Lithgow.
Awards and Honors
- Gates has received many honorary degrees, including one from his old university, the University of Cambridge.
- He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1981, which is a special award for talented individuals.
- In 1989, he won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for editing a collection of works by Black women writers.
- Time magazine named him one of its "25 Most Influential Americans" in 1997.
- Ebony magazine listed him among the "100 Most Influential Black Americans" in 2005.
- In 2002, the National Endowment for the Humanities gave Gates the Jefferson Lecture, the highest honor for achievements in the humanities in the U.S.
- He received the National Humanities Medal in 1998.
- In 2008, he received the Ralph Lowell Award, the highest honor in public television.
- In 2008, he helped start The Root, a website focused on African-American perspectives.
- In 2010, Gates was the first African American to have his entire genome (all his DNA) sequenced.
- His 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 2020, his book Stony the Road was named one of The New York Times' "100 Notable Books of 2019."
- In 2021, he received the PEN America Audible Literary Service Award.
- His web series, "Black History in Two Minutes (Or So)", has won several Webby Awards.
Filmography
- From Great Zimbabwe to Kilimatinde (1996) – Narrator and writer for Great Railway Journeys
- The Two Nations of Black America (1998) – Host and writer for Frontline
- Wonders of the African World (1999) – Writer and narrator for a six-part series
- America Beyond the Color Line (2004) – Host and writer for a four-part series
- African American Lives (2006) – Writer, host, and narrator for a four-hour series
- African American Lives 2 (2008) – Host and narrator for a four-hour series
- Looking for Lincoln (2009) – Writer, host, and co-producer
- Faces of America (2010) – Writer, narrator, and co-producer for a four-hour series
- Black in Latin America (2011) – Executive producer, writer, and presenter
- Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2012–present) – Executive producer, writer, and host
- The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013) – Executive producer, writer, and host for a six-part series
- Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise (2016) – Writer, presenter, and narrator for a four-part series
- Africa's Great Civilizations (2017) – Executive producer, writer, and presenter for a six-part series
- Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (2019) – Executive producer and presenter for a four-hour series
- Watchmen (2019) – Actor (cameo as a fictional version of himself)
- Making Black America: Through the Grapevine (2022) – Host and writer for a four-part series
- The Simpsons (2023) – Voice of himself in an episode
- Great Migrations: A People on the Move (2025) – Host for a four-part series
Images for kids
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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
See also
