Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. 9. We'll hear more after a short break. And he, and you, the officer and Joe Biden sat down, had a beer or two. He has an estimated net worth of $1million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. [29] His op-ed begins and ends with the observation that it is very difficult to decide whether or not to give reparations to the descendants of American slaves, whether they should receive compensation for the unpaid labor of their ancestors, and their lack of rights. I don't think that's true for very many people in this room or any - or many people who are watching this show. GATES: But everyone who's in one of those databases has given some kind of permission. - like the Aunt Jemima figure. Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. GATES: I go, yeah, I got a brother who's a dentist, you know? GATES: Well, I think that you should have the right to - you have to ask someone. Before the PBS episode, the world only knew that Vivian was reported to be of Sicilian heritage on her dads side, and German/Irish on her mothers side. And under the skin, we are almost identical genetically. So I want to read something that you wrote about her. Moreover, these genetic techniques may be inconsistent with the aims of conventional genealogy. Daughter Elizabeth Gates interviews her dad about . So that was a steal. More than anyone else, the historian is responsible for "entertaining the idea remotely" that Gates could become a writer. 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. "Beneath the return to the valley of the culture wars". The program documents a 3,000-mile journey Gates took through Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania, with his then-wife, Sharon Adams, and daughters, Liza and Meggie Gates. GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. What does Henry Louis Gates, Jr., see as the most important form of resistance against hate? 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. The work extended application of the concept of "signifyin'" to analysis of African-American works. 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. Professor Gates is the host of the documentary " Reconstruction: America After the Civil War. We'd spit in a test tube. 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. Having grown up in an African-American community, however, he identifies as Black. The arrest attracted national attention after U.S. President Barack Obama controversially declared that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting the 59-year-old Gates. Kids don't even know what they are anymore, but everybody here does. GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. 266. Amid discussion of Malcolm Gladwells roots, Gates discloses that the best-selling authors Jamaican maternal ancestor, a free woman of color, owned slaves of African descent. 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. So we knew he was Irish. Other TV credits included the documentary miniseries Wonders of the African World (1999), Black in Latin America (2011), The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013), and Reconstruction: America After the Civil War (2019). Jakes and Chris Tucker. I can do it. We cant hold a documentary for a general audience responsible for not presenting a complex metanarrative on the philosophy of genetic science. Thank you for being you. Read about President Obama's comments on Gates's arrest. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. And I showed up from Yale, and he became my mentor. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is an American treasure. Accuracy and availability may vary. And I was exhilarated. He rediscovered the earliest African-American novels . GROSS: Was that reflected in the way you wanted to say goodbye to your father at the funeral? So then I became close to them but in two completely different ways. On the same night Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr . And I don't know if that ruined your sports career forever, but it affected your leg forever. I hope you never come back, you know? It comes from slavery. GATES: And think about it. GROSS: But you had family that passed for white. And they fought in the Revolutionary War. 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. of Hutchins Center at @harvard. As editor-in-chief of the online magazine the Root, Gates has a background in journalism. His mother. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. I only did black people. And we knew the name of his great-great-grandmother and the name of this white man. GROSS: Whoa. But the ancestry is being investigated against the will of the people being outed. 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. 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. In 1973 he entered Clare College, Cambridge, where one of his tutors was the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka. James . So overseer, slave plantation - rape, right? GATES: We know he was Irish from my DNA. Tune in for all-new episodes as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores fascinating ancestries and family mysteries for an array of . Or even to the slave narrative of Venture Smith, in which blacks are purchased by other blacks for both slavery and freedom. Terry. www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots Posts Reels Videos Tagged I think it's vulgar and racist whether it comes out of a Black mouth or a white mouth. It was really, like, the photograph of her - of your great-great-aunt Jane Gates. 35 (1): 212227. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. He was there in exile because he had been in prison and to be offering civil war for 27 months and was given a fellowship at the University of Cambridge. Gates claimed that his arrest was a sign of racism on the part of police. He has affirmed the value of the Western tradition, but has envisioned a more inclusive canon of diverse works sharing common cultural connections: "Every Black American text must confess to a complex ancestry, one high and low (that is, literary and vernacular) but also one white and black there can be no doubt that white texts inform and influence black texts (and vice versa), so that a thoroughly integrated canon of American literature is not only politically sound, it is intellectually sound as well. And remarkably, she's now able to. My mother was a seamstress, as you know. GROSS: But you also wanted to know who were your African ancestors. GROSS: OK. In 1974, Carol Stacks important ethnography All Our Kin (Harper & Row) suggested the plasticity of the designation cousin well beyond consanguinity. In the first series, Gates learned that he has 50% European ancestry[22] and 50% African ancestry. They had a medical doctor who specializes in sharing this information. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. Of course not. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". GROSS: When you were 14, you had a football injury. Now think about that. [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. She paid cash for that house in what was largely a white neighborhood. Sgt. A Letter from Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to his daughters Maggie and Lisa I enjoy the unselfconscious moments of a shared cultural intimacy, whatever form they take, when no one else is watching, when no white people are around. And my grandfather was so white, we called him Casper behind his back. We're all admixed. The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. TERRY GROSS, BYLINE: Because you've talked to everybody about their genealogy, I want to talk with you about yours and what you've learned about yourself and the larger meaning of what you've learned about yourself. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (@henrylouisgates) Instagram photos and videos henrylouisgates Verified Follow 519 posts 129K followers 173 following Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Dir. At the time, only Vivians European background had been known, and this discovery in her ancestryresurfaced thanks to a profile on Johnnys first wife in The Washington Poston May 16. 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. And my mother used to write the eulogies, the obituaries for all the black people in the Potomac Valley, where I grew up. But we need to get some distance from the binary opposition we were raised in: evil white people and good Black people. GROSS: And then your slightly more contemporary ancestors not having any rights in the country, you know, or very few rights - not being able to vote, having to live in segregation. In 2020, Gates was honored with the Louis Stokes Community VisionaryAward. He has learned that he is also connected to the multiracial West Virginia community of Chestnut Ridge people. And your driver was helping you - well, he was shoving his shoulder against the door trying to open it. And then when we go - when you were buried, she would stand up. 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. They flew him in from San Francisco. As a literary historian committed to the preservation and study of historical texts, Gates has been integral to the Black Periodical Literature Project, a digital archive of Black newspapers and magazines created with financial assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities. And one of the, you know, wonderful people on "The View" said did I think that Donald Trump is racist. NPR's Michel Martin speaks with professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. about the forthcoming episode of Finding Your Roots which features actor Joe Manganiello discovering he is of African descent. Elizabeth had suffered a stroke, her mind irreparably harmed. And they would be published in the newspaper. The Native American writer Erdrich refuses to assent to genetic ancestry testing, because she understands her DNA to belong to her community. 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. 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. GROSS: Do you know - do you want to know your medical DNA? By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy. Biology matters. The injury was misdiagnosed by a physician, who told Gates' mother that his problem was 'psychosomatic'. They - but you're absolutely right. 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? The fruits of the unearthed family treehistorical coherence; redemptive narratives of migration and assimilation; intergenerational social mobilityare unevenly dispersed. An X-ray showed a bright portion that revealed just how much of her brain tissue was destroyed. GROSS: And it was reported as if it was a break-in, and a police officer came and arrested you. And our family - my cousin, Johnny Gates (ph), still owns that house to this day. Mama - I'm sorry, Mama. I mean, like, my - I'm second-generation American. This is FRESH AIR. And he mustered in in Winchester, Va., on Christmas Day, 1778, and was mustered down the Continental Army in April of 1784. And you don't have a Y DNA, so that's why you're a woman. People might remember the Beer Summit, when you were stopped in your own home trying to unjam a lock after a long trip. He loved the news. One wishes that Gates, an inimitable literary scholar well before he became a pathbreaking Renaissance man, might have alluded to another of Edward P. Joness works, The Known World, a historical novel exploring life in an antebellum community in which both blacks and whites hold black slaves, by way of even partial explanation. 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. [3], Gates learned through research that his family is descended in part from the Yoruba people of West Africa. And the title is Race Is A Social Construction, But Mutations Are Real" (ph). [25][26][27] Finding Your Roots resumed in January 2016.[28]. After that I would say I was a teacher. Cambridge police officers were dispatched. 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. Even the Native Americans came from someplace else about 16,000 years ago. It was just put on the historic GATES: Register in Maryland. And she was a beautiful woman. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. After a month at Yale Law School, Gates withdrew from the program. And on my desk set a red Webster's dictionary. "My father was so sad. [34] They had two daughters together before they divorced in 1999. And there were a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump as a repudiation vote. GATES: Now, we don't do blood anymore, right? And she's the cook for Claudette Colbert. In 2021, Gates was honored by PEN America with its Audible Literary Service Award. 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).