Henry Louis Gates Bio, Wiki, Age, Wife, Finding Your Roots, and Net Worth Jointly appointed to assistant professorships in English and Afro-American Studies in 1979, Gates was promoted to associate professor in 1984. GATES: Very close to them, yeah, particularly to my mother. Gates has such an eminent reputation", she said, "and so much gravitas. Henrys research also led him to discover a census from 1870, which revealed that Rosannes great-great grandfather a man named Lafayette Robsinson was mixed-race. Upon learning this, Rosanne recalled the long-running rumors of her mothers background and said, So, it was, at least, a small part true., Related: After a break, he'll talk about his childhood and about how DNA evidence demonstrates there's no such thing as racial purity. Gates currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. And another person to interpret my genetic data because it's 6 billion base pairs, right? In 2009, when I did "Faces Of America," a retail value of full genomic sequencing was $300,000. GATES: That's true. Thank you so much for accepting this award. And there were a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump as a repudiation vote. Joe Biden launched his presidential bid in April with a bold . He wrote his first column (about Little League games) at age 12 for the Piedmont Herald in West Virginia and continued to write for his high school and college newspapers. Gates wrote, executive-produced, and hosted the series, which earned the 2013 Peabody Award and a NAACP Image Award. And I want to start with the person who got you started in genealogy. Does race exist? Advertisement GATES: And then when they did my admixture, I'm 50 percent sub-Saharan African and 50 percent European and virtually no Native American ancestry, which really pisses my family off. I have the Ui Neil Haplotype. 4. Henry Louis Gates Jr. - Wikipedia Read about President Obama's comments on Gates's arrest. So let's get back to your great-great-grandmother. We'll hear more after a short break. And I was just overwhelmed with emotion. Gates's critically acclaimed six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, traced 500 years of African-American history to the second inauguration of President Barack Obama. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. As a result of research he conducted as a MacArthur Fellow, Gates discovered Our Nig, written by Harriet E. Wilson in 1859 and thought to be the first novel written in the United States by an African American. GATES: Yeah. 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. GATES: And I gave it to my mother once. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. As Faces of America concludes, the connections among several of the participants are revealed using a technique developed by Altschuler and his colleague Mark Daly that is similar to 23andMes Relative Finder. These DNA cousins share several million of the three billion base pairs, suggesting a common ancestor a few or tens of generations in the past. So where does that come from? A collection of moments during and after Barack Obama's presidency. 3. - like the Bible says? I told them that I did not want to know if I had any of the sort of - I don't know - the slam-dunk genes for Alzheimer's disease. The series combines the work of expert researchers in genealogy, history, and historical research in genetics to tell guests about the lives and histories of their ancestors. 7. And we have a wall of degrees at home. Cameo as a digital presentation of a fictional version of himself as, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 15:56. GATES: You know, I'm totally exposed. You know, no matter how different we appear phenotypically, under the skin we're 99.99 percent the same. So you're saying I should have been an undertaker. Family tree of Henry Louis GATES - Geneastar And I have my mother's certificate from this vocational school where she learned to be a seamstress. You don't get $1,400 by saving your nickels and dimes as a slave, right? DNA-derived genealogical information may also collide with other ways of rendering kinship and relation. And so he introduced me to the Yoruba people. And we knew the name of his great-great-grandmother and the name of this white man. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Thank God. In an article for Newsweek, journalist Lisa Miller reported on the reaction to Gates' article: The enemy of individuality is groupthink, Gates says, and here he holds everyone accountable. I killed my mama. In 2021, Gates was honored by PEN America with its Audible Literary Service Award. Like Joe Louis's fights, which my father still talks about as part of the fixed repertoire of stories that texture our lives. Or even to the slave narrative of Venture Smith, in which blacks are purchased by other blacks for both slavery and freedom. and Ph.D. in English literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge. GROSS: Totally stunned. And TV was on kind of like the hearth in New England. He grew up in neighboring Piedmont. As I have written elsewhere, this new kinship category, DNA cousins, or what Gates calls autosomal cousins, suggests that flexible kinship is being made on the new (or is it the rather old) terrain of biology. On the same night Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr . In 2021, Gates received the MIPAD 100 Network's Most Influential People of African Descent Lifetime Achievement Award. The new season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. 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. They lived together. Brub, Michael (Spring 1994). In front of all these people and all these viewers. I'm Dave Davies This is FRESH AIR. The injury was misdiagnosed by a physician, who told Gates' mother that his problem was 'psychosomatic'. 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. Trump, who is running for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, announced a slate of futuristic new policies in a campaign video Friday. GROSS: But you had family that passed for white. Henry was born in Patterson Creek, W.Va., on June 8, 1913. He learned the truth when he appeared on an episode of the new PBS series Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker, with his fair skin and blue eyes, had long . Elizabeth Gates, the daughter of prominent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, is in her twenties and suffered a severe stroke just four months ago. 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. At the age of 14, Gates suffered a hairline fracture of the ball-and-socket joint in his hip while playing touch football. Root seeking, on the one hand, produces idiosyncratic narratives. They - but you're absolutely right. 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.. In an essay that Henry Louis Gates, Jr., wrote in 2018 for the Encyclopdia Britannica Anniversary Edition: 250 Years of Excellence, he identified voting as the most important form of resistance against hate. Now think about that. And we're listening to Terry's interview with Henry Louis Gates. . He is on the boards of many notable institutions, including the, In 2010, Gates became the first African American to have his, In December 2014, Gates was announced as one of 14 recipients of a 2015. Isn't that a cool thing? or subscribe. We cant hold a documentary for a general audience responsible for not presenting a complex metanarrative on the philosophy of genetic science. As editor-in-chief of the online magazine the Root, Gates has a background in journalism. So my whole life is really an attempt to honor and please my parents and make them proud of me, you know. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (@henrylouisgates) - Instagram The world just isn't like that. 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. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. GROSS: Your father died not too long ago - a few years ago. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. And she burst into tears because she used to read me that book all the time. People might remember the Beer Summit, when you were stopped in your own home trying to unjam a lock after a long trip. And your driver was helping you - well, he was shoving his shoulder against the door trying to open it. The Native American writer Erdrich refuses to assent to genetic ancestry testing, because she understands her DNA to belong to her community. 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. 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. Yet no lens is provided through which to interpret this genealogical bombshell. GATES: Maybe for Christmas, OK, that's fine (laughter). GATES: But I have an announcement to make GATES: For you. GROSS: And I read you talking about this. African-Americans all think that they're a descendant from a Native American. 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. And by in traction, I mean on my back with my foot up with weights. GATES: The Gateses all looked - my father looked white. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. GROSS: Whoa. The former vice president has become the Democratic front-runner with primary victories across the country. On October 23, 2006, Gates was appointed the Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor at Harvard University. The "You. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". But on the other hand, Terry, there were a lot of people who never forgave the country for electing a black man to the White House. Since 1995, Gates has been the jury chair for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, which honors written works that contribute to society's understanding of racism and the diversity of human culture. 1. 6. GATES: Yeah, yeah. And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. So we knew he was Irish. )supply information about human population groups dating as far back as 150,000 years, the time horizon of admixture testing is the past 500 years. He has insisted that Black literature must be evaluated by the aesthetic criteria of its culture of origin, not criteria imported from Western or European cultural traditions that express a "tone deafness to the Black cultural voice" and result in "intellectual racism". He is a trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Even the Native Americans came from someplace else about 16,000 years ago. GATES: Yeah, I was 15 years old. GROSS: Do you know - do you want to know your medical DNA? He earned his B.A. And that is a long time. But we need to get some distance from the binary opposition we were raised in: evil white people and good Black people. Terry will be one of the guests whose family history is explored next year in the sixth season of the show. Finding Your Roots | Season 8 A Stroke -- in Your Twenties? - CBS News GATES: Well, I think that you should have the right to - you have to ask someone. GROSS: Is that too personal? GROSS: But you also wanted to know who were your African ancestors. And it turned out - my father used to say, you know, your mother's family is really distinguished, too? Because of the injury, Gates now uses a cane when he walks.[6][7]. She is author of the forthcoming Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Politics of Health and Race, and is at work on a book about genetic ancestry tracing and African diaspora culture. You said that after - you had been getting death threats and these angry emails and everything. Henry Louis Gates reveals celebrities' family history in 'Finding Your Henry Louis Gates, Jr. - The National Endowment for the Humanities Henry Louis Gates's Extended Family - The Chronicle of Higher Education GROSS: So I want to squeeze in one more question. Barack Obama understood that and, I think, certainly helped our nation to heal. After that, everything stopped. Kids don't even know what they are anymore, but everybody here does. Clarke, Breena, and Susan Tifft, "A 'Race Man' Argues for a Broader Curriculum: Henry Louis Gates Jr. 9. It's a lot of data to process. The series is the latest iteration of Gatess innovative, fascinating foray into the nexus of genealogy and genetic ancestry testing that began four years ago with African American Lives (and continued with African American Lives 2 and Oprahs Roots). Elizabeth had suffered a stroke, her mind irreparably harmed. You know, we used to say tribe, but now that's not politically correct - so the Yoruba ethnic group in Western Nigeria. Would you do it? August 22, 2013, 12:00 a.m. This is called an admixture test. GATES: Yeah, I loved books. GATES: And think about it. I think it's vulgar and racist whether it comes out of a Black mouth or a white mouth. In Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (1992) and elsewhere, Gates argued for the inclusion of African American literature in the Western canon. They spoke in front of an audience last May when Gates received WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award. 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. That's a long time when you're young. A passerby called police, reporting a possible break-in after describing to 911 "an individual" forcing the front door open. And tears just streamed down my face. 22,158 talking about this. 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. And I was in the hospital for six weeks. GROSS: OK. GATES: We know he was Irish from my DNA. But we can expect some acknowledgment and interpretation of technologys limits. 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. 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. I mean, they know Donald Trump. In 1995, he received the Golden Plate Award of the. Hollywood Life 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. After a month at Yale Law School, Gates withdrew from the program. GATES: And my father lived to be 97 1/2 without any dementia. "[30][31], Following a trip to China, Gates returned home to his residence in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Harvard Square on July 16, 2009, only to find the front door jammed. Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Head Negro In Charge - Boston Magazine As Elizabeth Alexander comments in Faces about her own family history, We dont even know the half of it. That profound uncertainty makes it all the more troubling that Gladwell translates the peculiar institution into a personal burden. And my father would just make up stories and tell my brother and me. GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. We started to roll. And on my desk set a red Webster's dictionary. GATES: Right after the Beer Summit, it all went away. 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. (January 21, 2015), Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Potomac State College of West Virginia University. And I sat down. 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. 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. javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net. 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. And I learned a lot about the medium. Accuracy and availability may vary. And most DNA companies in the United States will tell you that they have never tested an African-American who is 100 percent from sub-Saharan Africa. 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. 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. GROSS: So when you had your DNA done, did you have a wish for a certain area of Africa or a certain group of African people who you wanted to be your ancestors? GROSS: Yeah. I think you know where I'm heading here. He was a free negro, as we would have said then. My father loved sports, and I didn't care about sports that much. He has learned that he is also connected to the multiracial West Virginia community of Chestnut Ridge people. His taxi driver attempted to help him gain entrance. As a child, Gates said he wanted to be a Rhodes Scholar. 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.
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