The Frederick Speaker Series: Henry Louis Gates Jr.

An Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and institution builder, Henry Louis Gates Jr. has authored seventeen books and created fourteen documentary films. Host of the popular show Finding Your Roots, Professor Gates is one of the United States’ most influential cultural critics and is both an eloquent commentator and formidable intellectual force on multicultural and African American issues. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford African American Studies Center, the first comprehensive scholarly online resource in the field of African American Studies and Africana Studies. His six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (2013), which he wrote, executive produced and hosted, earned the Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program — Long Form, as well as the Peabody Award and NAACP Image Award. Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He has received 54 honorary degrees, from institutions including the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, New York University and Howard University. In 2006, he was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution, after he traced his lineage back to John Redman, a Free Negro who fought in the Revolutionary War.

A separately ticketed meet-and-greet reception will take place immediately following the event.  For an additional $75 you can meet the speaker for a photo opportunity, a signing opportunity (whenever possible), and light hors d’oeuvres and refreshments. All proceeds from the meet-and-greet reception will benefit children’s programs at Frederick County Public Libraries.