Henry Louis Gates Jr. on Why Fear Is Driving the Current Era of Racial Backlash

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is one of the most influential scholars of Black history and literature in the United States. He’s the director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, author of more than 20 books and creator of more than 20 documentaries, host of the groundbreaking genealogy series Finding your Roots, and, as it turns out, my former professor.

But he’s also, really, America’s professor. And his work is foundational to how Americans understand race as part of our shared national story.

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