Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He authored or co-authored 21 books and created 15 documentary films; his PBS series, “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” earned Emmy, Peabody, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University, and NAACP Image awards. Gates is chairman and co-founder of daily online magazine TheRoot.com, a member of the first class awarded MacArthur genius grants in 1981, and the first African American scholar to be awarded the National Humanities Medal, among many other honors. His board service includes NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, Library of America, and Brookings Institution.