And I would watch this beautiful, brilliant goddess. This is FRESH AIR. One of eight children born to Edward St. Lawrence Gates and Helen Gertrude Redman Gates, he was the youngest of seven sons. GATES: No. And what's the real showstopper for me is the fact that my three sets of my fourth great grandparents lived 18 miles from where I was born. We'll hear more after a short break. If you remember, it was called "African-American Lives." And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. GATES: Well, the average African-American GATES: The average African-American is 24 percent European. Surely, most people of African descent do not expect to find a black slave owner in their family tree. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. He notably explored genealogy as host of the series African American Lives (200608), Faces of America (2010), and Finding Your Roots (2012 ). And consequently, you are now a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Was this an equal sexual relationship? DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. According to a police report, Gates refused to cooperate when he was later questioned in his home, which resulted in his arrest. Both conventional and genetic tracing yield unanticipated results in Faces of America. Director, Hutchins Center, African & African American Research, Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard. GATES: I did an episode with Oprah and Quincy Jones and Bishop T.D. 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 I was in the hospital for six weeks. GROSS: Have you been medically DNA tested? GATES: admixture, I'm 50 percent sub-Saharan African and 50 percent European and virtually no Native American ancestry, which really pisses my family off. My dad got into a public battle with the KKK and so I knew about that, and it was scary, Rosanne said during the PBS special. GROSS: Whoa. 4. GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. I said, well, I've never met Donald Trump. And deep down, I realized in retrospect that my desire to make films was probably born about that time. The new season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. It's incredible. If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com. [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. 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. From Blum, he says, he learned a lot about writing and history. 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. You have to get permission. And under the skin, we are almost identical genetically. And they stayed home, and they read. GATES: You know, I'm totally exposed. GROSS: It has been a great honor to speak with you. The former vice president has become the Democratic front-runner with primary victories across the country. GROSS: You had family that passed for white. The forms of genealogical tracing that star in Faces function doubly: both splitting and lumping. GATES: Otherwise they wouldn't be in a database. 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. As a Black intellectual and public figure, Gates has been an outspoken critic of the Eurocentric literary canon. The injury was misdiagnosed by a physician, who told Gates' mother that his problem was 'psychosomatic'. Because the series is so successful in demonstrating the intersections between world history and personal history, the lack of contextualization here is notable. In Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (1992) and elsewhere, Gates argued for the inclusion of African American literature in the Western canon. And I think that that's sad. Know Thyself, the final episode, which shares its title with the slogan of Knome Inc., focuses mostly on genetic genealogy. Henry Louis Gates's Extended Family. I think it's vulgar and racist whether it comes out of a Black mouth or a white mouth. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. That seems to be one of the programs aspirations. 10. GATES: And then there was "The Late Late Show." And he'd make a couple - a move. After an evening at a bachelorette party, she woke up with what she thought was a hangover. We delineate our individual and collective identities based upon inclusion in and exclusion from groups. At the age of 14, Gates suffered a hairline fracture of the ball-and-socket joint in his hip while playing touch football. That's how much the science of genetics has changed in terms of the retail market since 2009. When asked by National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Bruce Cole to describe his work, Gates responded: "I would say I'm a literary critic. GATES: So obviously somebody gave her that money. 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. In 2020, Gates was named a Walter Channing Cabot Fellow by Harvard University. So my whole life is really an attempt to honor and please my parents and make them proud of me, you know. 1. [11] Additionally, he is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. GROSS: And it made me think about - because I was just reading this - it made me think about how a president can set the tone for the country on so many things, including, you know, racial issues, immigration. Such information forces you to contemplate your own history, he observes. So I'm telling this story over and over of my - of rediscovering my own lost roots. [1] He rediscovered the earliest known African-American novels, long forgotten, and has published extensively on appreciating African-American literature as part of the Western canon. In 2021, Gates was honored by PEN America with its Audible Literary Service Award. The book tells of Gates's childhood growing up in the 1950s in a close-knit extended family and an equally close-knit small-town community. ", The lesson of "Finding Your Roots" - we're all immigrants. 6. Gates wrote a book about Jay Rockefeller's campaign to be governor of West Virginia. GATES: Yeah. 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. This is FRESH AIR. And remarkably, she's now able to. 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). GROSS: Yeah. I hope you never come back, you know? GATES: Right after the Beer Summit, it all went away. The surprising reveals, coupled with the celebrities raw reactions to the information conveyed by the host, deliver moments of high drama and genuine emotion. And we're listening to Terry's interview with Henry Louis Gates. 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. 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. And she throws herself on the casket. In 2010, Gates wrote an op-ed in The New York Times that discussed the role played by Africans in the Atlantic slave trade. I only did black people. So I'm out there. So I would say, you know, no, I don't think so. In 2012, The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. So I want to read something that you wrote about her. GROSS: Yeah. I regret we are out of time. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. Police arrested Gates on July 16 on charges of disorderly conduct after a confrontation with an officer at his home in Cambridge, Mass. 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. Both would be just as important. Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren, Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter, Rosanne Cash: 5 Things To Know About Johnnys Daughter Whos Speaking Out About His June Carter Affair, 'Finding Your Roots' Preview: Jeff Goldblum Reveals How His Mom Helped Him Fight A Bully, Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren, Beautiful Nature-Inspired Baby Names Used By Celebrity Parents, Did Vanderpump Rules Tom Cheated on Ariana With Raquel? GROSS: Is that too personal? And she dies of a broken heart because her little girl passes for white and goes off - and never sees her again. In 2021, Gates was named a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and elected to the Johnsonsians (Society). 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. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest continues to cause controversy after President Obama criticized police action, Michelle Gielan reports. Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. American playwright, actor, screenwriter, producer, and director. So what that means is that it's the percent of - if you had a perfect family tree, what percent would be from sub-Saharan Africa? While assignment to the haplogroup L3x, for example, indicates an ancestor in what is now Ethiopia at least 50,000 years ago, this interesting detail does not fill in the contours of the family tree. Cambridge is a long way from Piedmont, but Gates traces the journey in his 1994 memoir, Colored People. That's not the way it was. But mutations exist. GROSS: OK. 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. They spoke in front of an audience last May when Gates received WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award. Now think about that. The womans suffering is assuaged at long last when she revisits the land and people that indelibly shaped her, including a local herbal healer. Thank you. Isn't that a cool thing? 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. But I think that you should have to get permission before someone is creeping around in your DNA. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Even if you were free and you were black GATES: In most states, you weren't allowed to vote. It was a horrible, horrible thing. 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. And the title is Race Is A Social Construction, But Mutations Are Real" (ph). GROSS: It's mind-boggling. Gatess father, Henry Louis Gates, Sr., worked in a paper mill and moonlighted as a janitor; his mother, Pauline Coleman Gates, cleaned houses. As a result of the injury, Gates walks with a cane and his right leg is more than 2 inches shorter than his left. 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. After a month at Yale Law School, Gates withdrew from the program. He was 97, as you said. So I thought that I had a pretty good chance. ". 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. Accuracy and availability may vary. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, African American who fought in the Revolutionary War, Alfred I. duPontColumbia University Award, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, The National Institute of Social Sciences, Who's Black and Why: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race. But we can expect some acknowledgment and interpretation of technologys limits. Now you can get a full sequence for less than $5,000 - some people say $1,000 or $2,000. 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). And I showed up from Yale, and he became my mentor. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. I killed my mama. GATES: OK. And before I started school - I started school when I was, well, 5, turning 6 - I would get dressed up, and I would go to church with my mom. OK. They had kids, and they're buried next to each other. It was better to be free than be a slave, but you were free but not free. Yeah. Also, journalist Brian Palmer talks about how slavery and the Civil War are described at Confederate historic sites in the South. But we have a disproportionately higher risk of sickle cell. 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. And I was exhilarated. Speaks onstage during the 'Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise' panel discussion at the PBS portion of the 2016. Over . And she come to - it's the woman who invents box pancake mix - right? Tune in for all-new episodes as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores fascinating ancestries and family mysteries for an array of . GROSS: Yeah. Kids don't even know what they are anymore, but everybody here does. [19], In 1995, Gates presented a program in the BBC series Great Railway Journeys (produced in association with PBS). As host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Gates tells celebrities about their family history. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In July 2009 Gates was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct: After returning from traveling abroad, Gates had forced open the door to his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which precipitated a call to police from a neighbour who believed a robbery might be underway. Alondra Nelson is an associate professor of sociology at Columbia University, where she also holds an appointment in the Institute for Research on Women and Gender. My mother used to read me - the greatest book ever written to me was "The Poky Little Puppy," right? After that I would say I was a teacher. Gates's web series, "Black History in Two Minutes (Or So)", which he executive produces with Robert F. Smith and Dyllan McGee, earned five Webby Awards, including for Best Podcast: Documentary and Best Video Series: Education & Discovery (2020), Best Podcast: Documentary and Best Social Video: Discovery & Education (2021) and Best Social Video: Discovery & Education (2022). 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. Gates traced the practice of signifyin to Esu, the trickster figure of Yoruba mythology, and to the figure of the signifying monkey, with which Esu is closely associated. 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. But I also watched TV. And when my grandparents came as immigrants, my family was able to assimilate pretty easily because we're white. GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. 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 . We are unable to fully display the content of this page. GROSS: I've interviewed many people over the years. I think you know where I'm heading here. Daughter Elizabeth Gates interviews her dad about . But I saw that photograph and read her obituary on the day that we buried my father's father, Edward St. Lawrence Gates. And when they analyzed my mitochondrial DNA, it went to England. Vivian filed for divorce in 1967, and Johnny went on to marry singer June Carter Cash. 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. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. It's beautiful. His father worked in a paper mill and moonlighted as a janitor, while his mother cleaned houses. GROSS: Terry Gross interviewed Henry Louis Gates last May when he was in Philadelphia to accept the WHYY Lifelong Learning Award. GATES: But everyone who's in one of those databases has given some kind of permission. 35 (1): 212227. Jakes and Chris Tucker. Coproduced, hosted, and written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. It's a gift - and for my mom. 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 2020, Gates received the 400 Years of African American History Commission's Distinguished 400Award. By Alondra Nelson. And he mustered in in Winchester, Va., on Christmas Day, 1778, and was mustered down the Continental Army in April of 1784. I don't think that's true for very many people in this room or any - or many people who are watching this show. And I realized only recently that though I was raised to be a doctor, deep down, I really wanted to be a writer. 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." His name was John Redman. Then he'd come back. 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. Gates argued that the pervasiveness and centrality of signifyin in African and African American literature and music means that all such expression is essentially a kind of dialogue with the literature and music of the past. GROSS: There's some people who are trying to use genealogy to out people who are white supremacists and say, oh, you think you're so pure white, that that's such a big deal? African-American - I love to joke about this. He maintains that it is "ridiculous" to think that only Blacks should be scholars of African and African-American literature. GATES: And think about it. And at this point, I'd run over to my mother and say, Mama, I'll never pass for white, Mama. 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. And I think that we throw terms like that around too loosely. And I'm wondering if being laid up from an injury for a while affected your desire to - and your time to immerse yourself in books. Eric Foner, professor of history at Columbia University, considered Gates's emphasis on there being "little discussion" of African involvement in the slave trade to be unfounded, stating that "today, virtually every history of slavery and every American history textbook includes this information". Brub, Michael (Spring 1994). GATES: And my father lived to be 97 1/2 without any dementia. Prosecutors later dropped the charges. GATES: He wasn't even out the door, and I moved into his bedroom. 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. In the series, he discussed findings with guests about their complex ancestries. "[13] After his 2003 NEH lecture, Gates published in the same year a book entitled The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, about the early African-American poet. GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. In 2021, Gates received the MIPAD 100 Network's Most Influential People of African Descent Lifetime Achievement Award. And my Y DNA, which is - comes in an unbroken chain, descends from this Irishman. I have the Ui Neil Haplotype. GATES: And we - they only put - remember "The Late Show"? While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Gates's prominence led to his being called as a witness on behalf of the controversial Florida rap group 2 Live Crew in an obscenity case. I'm going to be black. Testing showed he had ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa, Ireland and England. 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. Signifyin is the practice of representing an idea indirectly, through a commentary that is often humourous, boastful, insulting, or provocative. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. summa cum laude in history from Yale University and his M.A. In 2022, the Boston Public Library honored Gates with its Literary Lights Award.
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