Newberry Award Celebration Honors Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The Newberry honored Henry Louis Gates, Jr. for his contributions to the humanities during the library’s annual Award Celebration on Friday, May 2, 2025.

Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. In addition, he is an Emmy, DuPont, and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, cultural critic, and institution builder. He has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentary films, including The Black Church (PBS), Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO), Gospel (PBS), and Great Migrations (PBS). Finding Your Roots, Gates’s groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, now in its eleventh season on PBS, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy (2024).

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