Henry Louis Gates Jr. Biography

Fast Facts

• Won a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award in 1981, a George Polk Award for Social Commentary in 1993, and a Ralph Lowell Award in 2008
• Won an NAACP Image Award for "In Search of Our Roots: How Nineteen Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past" in 2010
• Received a National Humanities Medal in 1998 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999
• Won the American Book Award for "The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism" in 1989
• Graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale University with a degree in English Language and Literature in 1973 and earned his Master's and Ph․D․ in English Literature from the University of Cambridge, and has received 51 honorary degrees
• Taught at Yale University, Cornell University, and Duke University before joining the Harvard University faculty in 1991
• Has written several documentaries, including "Finding Your Roots," "Faces of America," and "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross․"
• Best known as an author, literary critic, Harvard professor, and director of the W․E․B․ Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research
• Is the Editor-in-Chief at TheRoot․com, an online magazine with a focus on the African American community, as well as the Oxford African American Studies Center, a comprehensive online resource in African American and Africana Studies
• Is the author of several books, including "Black in Latin America," "Faces of America," and "Tradition and the Black Atlantic: Criticism in the African Diaspora․"