Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University, will receive the annual Newberry Library Award for his achievement in the humanities during an award celebration on Friday, May 2, at The Drake, 140 East Walton Place, Chicago. Professor Gates 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).
“There are few people who have done more to foster research in genealogy and American history than Henry Louis Gates,” said Astrida Orle Tantillo, the Newberry's President and Librarian. “We are thrilled to present this award to Professor Gates as he represents a commitment to scholarship and inquiry that reflects our mission and values at the Newberry.”
The Newberry Library Award is presented annually to recognize achievement in the humanities in the tradition of the Newberry, which has cultivated the life of the mind since its founding in 1887. Past recipients include filmmaker Ken Burns; Ira Glass and This American Life; Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; and Carla Hayden, 14th Librarian of Congress, among others.
Gates is a recipient of numerous honorary degrees, including most recently, one from his graduate alma mater, the University of Cambridge, and The London School of Economics. Gates was a member of the first class awarded “genius grants” by the MacArthur Foundation in 1981, and in 1998 he became the first African American scholar to be awarded the National Humanities Medal, conferred by President William Jefferson Clinton. In 2001 he discovered the first novel written by a Black female author, The Bondwoman’s Narrative, by Hannah Craft, the holograph manuscript of which he donated to Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book Library. His latest book is The Black Box: Writing the Race (Penguin Random House, 2024), named by The New York Sunday Times Book Review as one the “100 Best Books of the Year.” He is at work on a new series exploring “The History of Blacks and Jews.”
The May 2 event begins at 5pm and includes a cocktail reception, dinner, and an appearance by Professor Gates, who will join Astrida Orle Tantillo for a conversation on stage. Tickets for the award celebration may be purchased on the Newberry’s website. All proceeds from the event support the Newberry’s collection and programs.