Honoring Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Annual David M. Rubenstein Lecture

The American Academy has honored Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with the Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies.

The program included the award presentation as well as a conversation between Gates and renowned interviewer David M. Rubenstein. Academy members, colleagues, friends, and fans of “Skip” had the opportunity to experience the ceremony live via Zoom and interact with other participants.

A prolific scholar and public intellectual, Gates’s work exploring and illuminating African American history and culture is incomparable. He is the Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Gates is the author or co-author of 25 books, such as the recent The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song; and creator of more than 20 documentary films and television programs, including Finding Your Roots, a series that uses genealogy and genetics to explore the ancestral histories of the program’s guests.