[20], In September 1995, Gates narrated a five-part abridgement (by Margaret Busby) of his memoir Colored People on BBC Radio 4.[21]. GATES: They don't do that anymore for this particular kind of - I had a broken hip. What is race? When we left off, Gates was talking about his own DNA mix. We defended the right of every American to vote. And a doctor from the Philippines taught me to play chess at West Virginia University Medical Center in Morgantown, W.Va. And he'd come around in rounds. Gates was an Anisfield-Wolf prize winner in 1989 for The Schomburg Library of Women Writers. GROSS: Let's look at your ancestry and see who's really in it. So I thought that I had a pretty good chance. That's how much the science of genetics has changed in terms of the retail market since 2009. We'll hear more after a short break. - like the Bible says? Remember all the talk about post-racialism that GATES: We thought when Obama - we had turned a corner, and we could, you know, beat our - the plowshares into pruning hooks - right? GROSS: Yeah. (Note: Clotel (1853) by William Wells Brown is recognized as the first novel published by an African-American author, but it was both written and published in London.) And when they analyzed my mitochondrial DNA, it went to England. 22,158 talking about this. Even with the aid of cutting-edge 21st-century genealogydigitized archival records and genetic analysiswe may never know the ins and outs of how Gladwells fifth-great-grandmother came to be a slaveholder. He has learned that he is also connected to the multiracial West Virginia community of Chestnut Ridge people. That's the way it is. Faces expands on those outings in topic and technique, branching out from the genealogies of prominent blacks to those of a multiracial, multiethnic group of notables, including the actors Eva Longoria and Meryl Streep, the writers Louise Erdrich and Malcolm Gladwell, the musician Yo-Yo Ma, the poet and scholar Elizabeth Alexander, the comedian Stephen Colbert, and Gates himself. "People wanted to kill me, man," Gates says of the reaction to that op-ed. And I think that that's sad. And she invents this pancake mix, and they become fabulously wealthy. Joe Biden launched his presidential bid in April with a bold . But they came from someplace else. Thank you. Whereas prior shows relied heavily on analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome (Y-DNA), yielding results that included at most about 2 percent of ones complete genetic inheritance, in Faces techniques are used that probe deeper into more of the genome. 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. We started to roll. [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. Prosecutors later dropped the charges. 35 (1): 212227. As a literary theorist and critic, Gates has combined literary techniques of deconstruction with native African literary traditions. The fifth season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. ", The lesson of "Finding Your Roots" - we're all immigrants. And I don't know if that ruined your sports career forever, but it affected your leg forever. An X-ray showed a bright portion that revealed just how much of her brain tissue was destroyed. I said, well, I've never met Donald Trump. It was just misdiagnosed. And I want to start with the person who got you started in genealogy. This is FRESH AIR. And they got the brothers in uniforms with swords and stuff coming out of the church with this sad, black church music. It's the damnedest thing I ever heard. I killed my mama. After a month at Yale Law School, Gates withdrew from the program. 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. OK. GATES: Well, I think that you should have the right to - you have to ask someone. Catch #FindingYourRoots Tuesdays at 8/7c on PBS (check local listings). And the obituary said, died this day in Cumberland, Md., January 6, 1888; Aunt Jane Gates, an estimable colored woman. 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. It's incredible. We have the great privilege of having Professor Henry Louis Gates, of Harvard University, the Director of the W.B. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. Was this an equal sexual relationship? And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". 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. But we can expect some acknowledgment and interpretation of technologys limits. In addition to Rosanne, Vivian and Johnny welcomed three other daughters: Cindy, Kathy and Tara. For $50,000, they sequenced my father, me and then 12 of the guests who were in "Faces Of America" - not a full genome but a dense genotyping. Following a two-year stay at Duke University, he was recruited to Harvard University in 1991. Now think about that. If the findings of conventional genealogical research produce fireworks, the results of the DNA analysis generate shock and awe. And I was in the hospital for six weeks. They had two geneticists. 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. Coproduced, hosted, and written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. GATES: He wasn't even out the door, and I moved into his bedroom. And that is the lesson of "Finding Your Roots. 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. In Root Worker, a short story by Edward P. Jones, a chronically ill African-American woman who migrated to Washington, D.C., from North Carolina returns to the South with her husband and daughter, a physician, in search of the cure that has eluded her for decades in the North. So you GATES: Because of this white man. And that night - and then daddy showed my brother and me, Dr. Paul Gates now, chief of dentistry at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital GATES: Well, it's the spirit of my mother. GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. GROSS: Is that too personal? "Black people were so angry at me. When the physical damage finally healed, his right leg was two inches shorter than his left. He applied the notion to the interpretation of slave narratives and showed how it informs the works of Phillis Wheatley, Zora Neale Hurston, Frederick Douglass, the early African American writers of periodical fiction, Ralph Ellison, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, and Soyinka. Well, I'll tell you a funny story. 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. 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. GATES: But then they did another special test. He was 97, as you said. This is FRESH AIR. The current PBS documentary miniseries Faces of America traces the family histories of 12 prominent people who, over the course of several hours and with the aid of conventional and genetic genealogy, come to fasten their varied tribulations and successes to the arc of ancestry. GROSS: It's mind-boggling. His mother cleaned houses. Sgt. Copyright 2019 NPR. 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. Gates was born in Keyser, West Virginia,[2] to Pauline Augusta (Coleman) Gates (19161987) and Henry Louis Gates Sr. (c. 19132010). And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. Still, as the sociologist Troy Duster wrote in The Chronicle Review (Deep Roots and Tangled Branches, February 3, 2006) regarding the use of this analysis in the first African American Lives, these tests rel[y] excessively on the idea of 100-percent purity, a condition that could never have existed in human populations. We learn, too, that Yo-Yo Ma is 100 percent Asian, that Streep is 100 percent European, and, in a nod to comedy and to how quickly ancestry can become racial classification, that Colbert is 100 percent white man! What is one to make of an admixture test that reveals no mixture at all? My mother used to read me - the greatest book ever written to me was "The Poky Little Puppy," right? His mother. As editor-in-chief of the online magazine the Root, Gates has a background in journalism. Rosanne Cash became tearful after learning that her mom, Vivian Liberto Cash, had a Black great-great grandmother who was subjected to a life of slavery. GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. Gates was also involved with various television documentaries that were aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Gates was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, but the charges were dropped. But it is clear, in any case, that we fully inhabit a genealogical society"to use the anthropologist Elizabeth Povinellis phrase. As a prominent Black intellectual, Gates has concentrated on building academic institutions to study Black culture. And that is a long time. 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, although full genome sequencing is becoming more common and affordable, haplotype grouping relies upon the more narrow analysis of mtDNA and Y-DNA. And you realize it's Peola, grown up, coming back. Thank God. That seems to be one of the programs aspirations. On the same night Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr . GROSS: And I read you talking about this. [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 2019, Gates received the Anne Izard Storytellers Choice Award, 2019 for "The Annotated African American Folktales," which he edited with Maria Tatar. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. In July 2022, Gates announced that he would serve as editor-in-chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, a new glossary of language that will contain popular phrases used by historical Black figures and modern-day Black Americans. However, in the 60s amid the Civil Rights Movement, Vivian had been the target of attention from white supremacists since they believed she looked Black. GATES: So if you were a Martian and came down to look at my DNA results, you'd think I was a white boy, you know? In the first series, Gates learned that he has 50% European ancestry[22] and 50% African ancestry. GROSS: Whoa. Author Herb Boyd, who teaches African and African-American history at the College of New Rochelle and City College, CUNY, argued that despite the complicity of African monarchs in the Atlantic slave trade, the United States "was the greatest beneficiary, and thus should be the main compensator". Additionally, he has worked to bring about social, educational, and intellectual equality for Black Americans. He's also written for Time magazine, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. In 2021, Gates was honored by PEN America with its Audible Literary Service 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. If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or [email protected]. People might remember the Beer Summit, when you were stopped in your own home trying to unjam a lock after a long trip. Yeah. 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 could've won the Nobel Prize, and somebody would say congratulations. 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? Jakes and Chris Tucker. In the second season of the program, Gates learned that he is part of a genetic subgroup that may be descended from or related to the fourth-century Irish king, Niall of the Nine Hostages. Except in the next scene, I showed him their headstones. GROSS: Huge story. 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. 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. GROSS: When you were 14, you had a football injury. 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. Will we reach consilience"William Whewells term for the combining of information from different domains toward the unity of knowledgebetween conventional and genetic genealogy (and, moreover, among the types of genetic analysis at play)? 4. Crockett Jr., Stephen A. And the geneticists have found the identity finally of Jane Gates's paramour, the man GATES: Yes. In 2021, the National World War Two Museum recognized Gates with its American Spirit Award. And we knew the name of his great-great-grandmother and the name of this white man. And tears just streamed down my face. 3. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Brub, Michael (Spring 1994). 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. 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. And the last thing I did before I went to bed was - we always had a desk in our bedrooms and had a bookcase. [11] Additionally, he is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. 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. It was Gates vs. Gates on Martha's Vineyard this week. Even if you were free and you were black GATES: In most states, you weren't allowed to vote. He argued that the material, which the government charged was profane, had important roots in African-American Vernacular English, games, and literary traditions, and should be protected. The event led to public criticism of the Cambridge police department by U.S. Pres. Armstrong Williams, a person I really admire and like, I ask him, and he said absolutely not. GROSS: Your father died not too long ago - a few years ago. It's - remember, it's - my father dragged my brother and me upstairs in his parents' home and made us wait why he'd look through half a dozen of his father's scrapbooks, about which we knew nothing - complete mystery, a secret to us - looking for that obituary. Both conventional and genetic tracing yield unanticipated results in Faces of America. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henry-Louis-Gates-Jr. African American Registry - Biography of Herny Louis Gates, Jr. Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. 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. Moreover, these genetic techniques may be inconsistent with the aims of conventional genealogy. That's a long time when you're young. "My father was so sad. He reported:[37], "I had this spiritual event where it was like the top of my head opened up. [23] He had known of some European ancestry, but was surprised to learn the high proportion; he also learned that he was descended from John Redman, a mulatto veteran in New England of the American Revolutionary War. And we're listening to Terry's interview with Henry Louis Gates. Jr. (Design School Visiting Committee 1984-89) in honor of their daughters, Brooke Higgins Bing Williams, Harvard College 1988, and Eden Branford Bing Williams, Harvard . American literary critic, professor and historian (born 1950), Critical studies and reviews of Gates' work. Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. GATES: Yeah. (January 21, 2015), Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Potomac State College of West Virginia University. In the face of migration and movement and so-called nontraditional family forms, both conventional and genetic genealogy allow us to freeze for a moment the flux of the modern human experience. of Hutchins Center at @harvard. So let's get back to your great-great-grandmother. Speaks onstage during the 'Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise' panel discussion at the PBS portion of the 2016. We are unable to fully display the content of this page. These American faces, we learn, are the descendants of colonialists, aboriginals, overseers, bondspeople, interned citizens, and religious pilgrims. I have a couple black friends - I went to Yale with Ben Carson and with Ben's wife. Tune in for all-new episodes as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores fascinating ancestries and family mysteries for an array of . The book tells stories about Gates's parents, his lifelong nickname, Skippy, and his brother, Rocky. What percent would be from Europe? There we go. And when my grandparents came as immigrants, my family was able to assimilate pretty easily because we're white. 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.. GROSS: So you know your medical background and if you're GATES: Yeah. And I gave it to her for birthday. Cambridge police officers were dispatched. GROSS: So you assume it was not a consensual relationship, but she managed to own her own home five years after being freed from slavery. Both would be just as important. Terry will be one of the guests whose family history is explored next year in the sixth season of the show. All rights reserved. This is FRESH AIR. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. Daughter Elizabeth Gates interviews her dad about . Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. Video of the day: Drake and 21 Savage's "Spin Bout U" NYC's Extra Butter and Russ & Daughters Join Forces on 50th-Anniversary PUMA Clyde NYC's Extra Butter and Russ & Daughters Join Forces on 50th-Anniversary PUMA ClydeTwo quintessential Lower East Side outposts celebrate the downtown staple sneaker.HypebeastDylan Kelly Culture: Henry He draws on structuralism, post-structuralism, and semiotics to analyze texts and assess matters of identity politics. GATES: Well, I was on "The View." NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. What do you think of that? I mean, they know Donald Trump. I mean, like, my - I'm second-generation American. I'm here to ask, on behalf of our production staff, if you will be a guest in next season GATES: Of "Finding Your Roots." Yet genealogy is, at the same time, put to the task of heightening awareness of human relatedness, be it experiential or biological. In 1980 Gates became codirector of the Black Periodical Literature Project at Yale. Gates says John Morton Blum, a professor in Yale's history department, was his mentor. My father loved sports, and I didn't care about sports that much. So that was a steal. [3], Gates learned through research that his family is descended in part from the Yoruba people of West Africa. He notably explored genealogy as host of the series African American Lives (200608), Faces of America (2010), and Finding Your Roots (2012 ). And I watched reruns of early black films like "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah." GATES: And we - they only put - remember "The Late Show"? 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. (SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT'S "EGYPTIAN FANTASY"). This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. He is a trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. By Alondra Nelson. Henry was born in Patterson Creek, W.Va., on June 8, 1913. And then black people would tell each other - they would say, you know, be sure to watch "The Late Late Show" tonight because "Imitation Of Life," which is my favorite film - 1934, with Claudette Colbert. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. Clarke, Breena, and Susan Tifft, "A 'Race Man' Argues for a Broader Curriculum: Henry Louis Gates Jr. Contemporary Literature. He was a free negro, as we would have said then. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. GATES: Well, the average African-American GATES: The average African-American is 24 percent European. Gatess father, Henry Louis Gates, Sr., worked in a paper mill and moonlighted as a janitor; his mother, Pauline Coleman Gates, cleaned houses. And so he introduced me to the Yoruba people. The first time we met was when I interviewed him for "The Reflection Effect," an essay I wrote for O, the Oprah Magazine about the power of nostalgia to drive happiness and build resilience after loss. Gates' Daughter Speaks Out CBS 2.04M subscribers Subscribe 53K views 13 years ago Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest continues to cause controversy after President Obama. From Blum, he says, he learned a lot about writing and history. 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. While at Yale, Gates mentored Jodie Foster, who majored in African-American Literature there and wrote her thesis on author Toni Morrison. Read about President Obama's comments on Gates's arrest. 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." It's a horrible way to start, in a way. You don't get $1,400 by saving your nickels and dimes as a slave, right? summa cum laude in history from Yale University and his M.A. This is called an admixture test. And my Y DNA, which is - comes in an unbroken chain, descends from this Irishman. The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. And the average African-American has less than 1 percent Native American ancestry, but they have 24 percent European ancestry. The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song was published in 2021. 2. Many of us were troubled. Updates? It was astonishing. GATES: Yeah, I was 15 years old. 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 . "Finding Your Roots" has become a phenomenon -- and it all began with host Henry Louis Gates Jr. receiving a piece of angry fan mail. 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. And I was exhilarated. And deep down, I realized in retrospect that my desire to make films was probably born about that time. 8. In the series, he discussed findings with guests about their complex ancestries. The womans suffering is assuaged at long last when she revisits the land and people that indelibly shaped her, including a local herbal healer. 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). And he fought in - for the Continental Army. In 2020, Gates was honored with the Louis Stokes Community VisionaryAward. On hand again is admixture analysistesting that probes a persons full nuclear DNA for genetic indicators said to be suggestive of ancestry; percentages of African, American Indian, European, or Asian descent are inferred from those informative markers. He maintains that it is "ridiculous" to think that only Blacks should be scholars of African and African-American literature.