Henry Louis Gates

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. embarks on a deeply personal journey through the last fifty years of African American history. Joined by leading scholars, celebrities, and a dynamic cast of people who shaped these years, Gates travels from the victories of the civil rights movement up to today, asking profound questions about the state of black America, and our nation as a whole.

A companion to the hit PBS documentary series explores how cutting-edge genomics and deep genealogical research are enabling unprecedented understandings of human heritage, tracing the histories of such notables as Ken Burns, Stephen King, and Derek Jeter.

As some remarkable men talk about their lives, many perspectives emerge. All these men came from modest circumstances and all achieved preeminence. They are people, Gates writes, "who have shaped the world as much as they were shaped by it, who gave as good as they got." Three are writers-- James Baldwin was once regarded as the intellectual spokesman for the black community; Anatole Broyard chose to hide his black heritage so as to be seen as a writer...

This series looks at the last five decades of African American history through the eyes of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., exploring the tremendous gains and persistent challenges of these years. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, scholarly analysis and rare archival footage, the series illuminates our recent past, while raising urgent questions about the future of the African American community--and our nation as a whole. The second hour dramatizes the diverging...

When Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., saw a modest auction catalogue listing for an "Unpublished Original Manuscript," he knew he could be on the verge of a major literary find. After exhaustive research, he found that the handwritten manuscript he had purchased was the only known novel by a female African American slave and possibly the first novel written by a black woman anywhere. The Bondwoman's Narrative tells of a self-educated young house...

In sharing their stories, uses every tool available, from cutting-edge DNA research to old-school genealogical sleuthing to reveal long-buried secrets. Spanning the globe, the series compiles family trees that trace throughout the United States and Canada; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Germany, Poland, Ireland, Russia, and more.