Obama and Vice President Joe Biden eventually extended an invitation to Gates and the Cambridge officer who was involved to share a beer with them at the White House, which they accepted. [20], In September 1995, Gates narrated a five-part abridgement (by Margaret Busby) of his memoir Colored People on BBC Radio 4.[21]. He maintains that it is "ridiculous" to think that only Blacks should be scholars of African and African-American literature. 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: GATES: But then they did another special test. GROSS: When you were 14, you had a football injury. In 1995, he received the Golden Plate Award of the. It was better to be free than be a slave, but you were free but not free. 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." 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". By Henry Louis Gates Jr. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". They came in slave ships. In front of all these people and all these viewers. They had a medical doctor who specializes in sharing this information. And TV was on kind of like the hearth in New England. And they stayed home, and they read. GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. In 2020, Gates received the Muhammad Ali Voice of HumanityAward. (SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT'S "EGYPTIAN FANTASY"). Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. And I hope they are. Gates considers himself a literary critic and educator. [9] Gates accepted the offer by Cornell in 1985 and taught there until 1989. 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.. And he fought in - for the Continental Army. And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. Jakes and Chris Tucker. 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. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. American literary critic, professor and historian (born 1950), Critical studies and reviews of Gates' work. They had kids, and they're buried next to each other. GROSS: So having done your, like, ancestry and everything, were you close to your parents? 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. 7. August 22, 2013, 12:00 a.m. I am descended from - on my father's side - from a white man who impregnated a black woman and, on my mother's side, from a white woman who was impregnated by a black man. GROSS: You had family that passed for white. I only did black people. That yearning manifests itself in many ways, from anomie to ethnic mutual-aid associations. And I was shocked by that. I mean, they know Donald Trump. 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. You know, no matter how different we appear phenotypically, under the skin we're 99.99 percent the same. I love you. "Beneath the return to the valley of the culture wars". 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? Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. [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. From Blum, he says, he learned a lot about writing and history. Additionally, he has worked to bring about social, educational, and intellectual equality for Black Americans. According to a police report, Gates refused to cooperate when he was later questioned in his home, which resulted in his arrest. So (laughter) given the example that President Obama set in calming down that kind of argument in America over you and this officer, what do you hear now coming from our president? And she would stand up and read their obituary, their eulogy. Black people came here - not willingly, of course. 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 we're listening to Terry's interview with Henry Louis Gates. The confrontation resulted in Gates being arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. President Obama's comments on Gates's arrest. And then it was a property requirement. GATES: Very close to them, yeah, particularly to my mother. It's beautiful. Not all U.S. presidents are missed once they leave the White House. "People wanted to kill me, man," Gates says of the reaction to that op-ed. No one's ever asked me that, but the answer's yes because I studied with a person who has been on your show, Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian playwright, when I went to the University of Cambridge. GROSS: I've interviewed many people over the years. It's the damnedest thing I ever heard. Thank you so much for accepting this award. GROSS: Your father died not too long ago - a few years ago. Following a two-year stay at Duke University, he was recruited to Harvard University in 1991. Does race exist? We started to roll. And so then they came in - this is a big deal back in 2008. What percent would be from Europe? The injury was misdiagnosed by a physician, who told Gates' mother that his problem was 'psychosomatic'. GROSS: Let's look at your ancestry and see who's really in it. 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. or subscribe. We have the great privilege of having Professor Henry Louis Gates, of Harvard University, the Director of the W.B. "[7], Gates has argued that a separatist, Afrocentric education perpetuates racist stereotypes. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. GATES: Now, we don't do blood anymore, right? After that I would say I was a teacher. GROSS: But you also wanted to know who were your African ancestors. 9. GATES: I did an episode with Oprah and Quincy Jones and Bishop T.D. 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. I was more of a bookworm. Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. After an evening at a bachelorette party, she woke up with what she thought was a hangover. This is called an admixture test. At Yale University in 1973, he was one of 12 students selected as a Scholar of the House, a program that allows seniors to write a book or compose a symphony or follow a similar passion instead of taking classes. And under the skin, we are almost identical genetically. So I thought that I had a pretty good chance. There we go. He's also written for Time magazine, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. In the early 1980s Gates rediscovered the earliest novel by an African American, Harriet E. Wilsons Our Nig (1859), by proving that the work was in fact written by an African American woman and not, as had been widely assumed, by a white man from the North. A white doctor misdiagnosed the injury as psychosomatic after Gates told him he wanted to become a doctor, Gates wrote in a New York Times article, "About Men: A Giant Step," in 1990. 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. And I think that we throw terms like that around too loosely. 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. DNA-derived genealogical information may also collide with other ways of rendering kinship and relation. And I think that that's sad. doi:10.2307/1208745. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. After turning that corner, Sharon gave birth to Maggie, their first daughter, in July 1980, and Liza was born 18 months later. He earned his B.A. Even the Native Americans came from someplace else about 16,000 years ago. 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. GATES: I'll never - I love you, Mama. So I just wrote an essay that was published by Yale University Press about race. 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. Gates wrote, executive-produced, and hosted the series, which earned the 2013 Peabody Award and a NAACP Image Award. of Hutchins Center at @harvard. GROSS: OK. He's received 50 honorary degrees from such institutions as Harvard University and Williams College. Over . And I don't think that he understands how much power that - to heal, to bind that the Oval Office metaphorically has. So you're saying I should have been an undertaker. And when my grandparents came as immigrants, my family was able to assimilate pretty easily because we're white. On October 23, 2006, Gates was appointed the Alphonse Fletcher Jr. University Professor at Harvard University. Or even to the slave narrative of Venture Smith, in which blacks are purchased by other blacks for both slavery and freedom. The work extended application of the concept of "signifyin'" to analysis of African-American works. 3. In the series, he discussed findings with guests about their complex ancestries. [11] Additionally, he is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. The book tells stories about Gates's parents, his lifelong nickname, Skippy, and his brother, Rocky. In Wednesday's press conference, President Obama called the Cambridge Police Department "stupid" for arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. I don't think that's true for very many people in this room or any - or many people who are watching this show. Because of the injury, Gates now uses a cane when he walks.[6][7]. GATES: That's true. 22,158 talking about this. Advertisement In 2020, Gates was named a Walter Channing Cabot Fellow by Harvard University. Gates says John Morton Blum, a professor in Yale's history department, was his mentor. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Thank you. And I couldn't imagine what, but two sets of those fourth great-grandparents are from my mother's line. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. [8] The first African American to be awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Gates sailed on the Queen Elizabeth 2 for England, where he studied English literature at Clare College, Cambridge and earned his Ph.D. degree. Race is a social construction. GATES: Yeah. The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. What percent would be Native American? His mother. And your driver was helping you - well, he was shoving his shoulder against the door trying to open it. But then President Obama called you both together. 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. 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. - like the Bible says? Well, I'll tell you a funny story. GROSS: Terry Gross interviewed Henry Louis Gates last May when he was in Philadelphia to accept the WHYY Lifelong Learning Award. Elizabeth had suffered a stroke, her mind irreparably harmed. 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. He rediscovered the earliest African-American novels . I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. But it's just not those two genetic lines. Then he'd come back. So you GATES: Because of this white man. In 2020, Gates earned a NAACP Image Award Nomination for Outstanding Literary Work Nonfiction for his book. ". It's a gift - and for my mom. My mother was a seamstress, as you know. Now you can get a full sequence for less than $5,000 - some people say $1,000 or $2,000. Gates has joined the Sons of the American Revolution. And the reason I wanted to be a writer is that my mother wrote so beautifully and read so beautifully. 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. (Rockefeller lost in 1972 but later served two terms as governor.). 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. Malcolm Gladwell hears some shocking news in Gates's latest PBS show. 10. It was really, like, the photograph of her - of your great-great-aunt Jane Gates. But they came from someplace else. I love you being black. He grew up in neighboring Piedmont. Gates was the host and co-producer of African American Lives (2006) and African American Lives 2 (2008) in which the lineage of more than a dozen notable African Americans was traced using genealogical and historical resources, as well as genealogical DNA testing. He was 97, as you said. You don't get $1,400 by saving your nickels and dimes as a slave, right? Cambridge is a long way from Piedmont, but Gates traces the journey in his 1994 memoir, Colored People. In the show, notable guests discover their family roots based on genealogical research and DNA results. 6. My great-great-grandfather's now been found. And deep down, I realized in retrospect that my desire to make films was probably born about that time. As a literary theorist and critic, Gates has combined literary techniques of deconstruction with native African literary traditions. . 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. Gates developed the notion of signifyin in Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self (1987) and The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988). 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.
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