Finding Your Roots
Based on his groundbreaking PBS series of the same name, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shares insights from his influential series about genealogy, genetics, and history’s impact on our lives today. This keynote features a stunning visual presentation, including Professor Gates’ favorite moments from the show, such as the memorable appears of the late Congressman John Lewis.
DEI from Reconstruction to Today
Cultural critic and esteemed literary scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. traces the influences of the history of Reconstruction on today’s vital issues, showing how that vital period of history is a mirror for what is happening in politics and society today. Professor Gates illuminates the historical impact in our current conversations about voter suppression, the rise of racist rhetoric, and increasing bipartisanship, and offers insights about the ongoing challenges as well as opportunities facing us today.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates’s most recent books are Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow and The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song. He has also produced and hosted an array of documentary films. The Black Church (PBS) and Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO), which he executive produced, each received Emmy nominations. His latest history series for PBS is Making Black America: Through the Grapevine. Finding Your Roots, Gates’s groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, has completed its ninth season on PBS and will return for a tenth season in 2024.