The act of writing for the slave constituted the act of creating a public, historical self, not only the self of the… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
My father, if anything, first and last, was a man of words. He loved stories; he didn't live for stories, exactly, but… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Learning to sing one's own songs, to trust the particular cadences of own's voices, is also the goal of any writer. — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Arnold Rampersad's stunningly revealing biography has, at long last, unveiled-in magisterial prose-the very complex and vulnerable man behind Ralph Ellison's own masks… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Insofar as we, critics of the black tradition, master our craft, we serve both to preserve our own traditions and to shape… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
An impressively researched and documented collection of the finest thought produced by writers throughout the African Diaspora. A magnificent achievement. — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Very few Black people ever embraced back to Africa movements, and very few actually, a tiny number actually went back to Africa.… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
In Ethiopia, the black people became Christians 1700 years ago, hundreds of years before Northern Europe turned to Christianity... And here, most of the… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Politicians will not put forth programs aimed at the problems of poor blacks while their turnout remains so low. — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
I'm a tech geek. Whenever I read about something new, I think to myself, How can I take this and make it black? — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
I think that the implication of King's assassination has not been fully appreciated. — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
I want to be remembered as someone who tried to bring the story of our ancestors to the broadest possible audience. I want to… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
In 1957, when I was in second grade, black children integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. We watched it on TV. All… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Since the day Martin Luther King was killed, the black middle classes have almost quadrupled, but the percentage of black children living on or… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Because Lincoln is so closely identified with what it is to be American, everyone wants to claim him, to rewrite his story to satisfy… — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
My grandfather was coloured, my father was Negro, and I am Black. — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried. — Henry Louis Gates Copy Share Image
