Henry Louis Gates Jr. - 1976 Words

Homa Khugyani Margaret Rustick English 3080 7 February 2016 Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Director of the Hutchins Center for African American Research at Harvard University, and an esteemed Alphonse Fletcher University Professor. According to his Harvard University profile he is an â€Å"Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, institution builder†¦and the recipient of fifty-five honorary degrees and numerous prizes.† Professor Gates was also the first African American scholar to be awarded the National Humanities Medal. In 1973 he earned his Bachelors in English Language and Literature from Yale University, and in 1974-1979 he got his Master’s. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Clare College at the University of Cambridge (Department of African and African American Studies). Throughout many of his texts Gates provides examples of the ambiguity of language and identity, and the oppressive role ideology plays in the black community; allowing readers to apply the id ea of deconstruction to our own daily experiences Gates was born in 1950, and raised in Piedmont, West Virginia, by his father, Henry Louis Sr. and his mother Pauline Coleman Gates. His father worked at the local Westvaco paper mill during the day and worked nights as a janitor for a local telephone company in order to support his family. Gates mother, was a house cleaner and worked hard to raise her sons to live and excel in an integrated world so that theyShow MoreRelatedColored People by Henry Louis Gates Jr.643 Words   |  3 PagesI feel there are many reasons that Henry Louis Gates Jr chose Colored People as the title of his memoir. I think the word Colored in the title was used to group everyone as a whole. The word Colored was also used to self identify different races inside and out of Piedmont. I think he used People to say that everyone matters no matter where you hail from. The word Colored and the word People have two different meanings alone. But put the two together they become a powerful piece to theRead MoreColore d People, by Henry Louis Gates Jr.1745 Words   |  7 Pages One of the most influential and enlightening scholars in contemporary academics who focuses primarily on African-American issues, both from the past and the present, is undoubtedly Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Born in 1950 and raised in the small, middle-class, colored community of Piedmont, West Virginia, Gatess acclaimed 1995 autobiography, Colored People, brings readers to a place and time in America when both the racial boundaries and the definition of progress were changing weekly. ColoredRead MoreThe Classic Salve Narratives By Henry Louis Gates, Jr.1113 Words   |  5 PagesIn the book The Classic Salve Narratives, edited and with an introduction by Henry Louis Gates, JR., contains a slave narrative; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This narrative is written by Frederick Douglass, in 1845, who was a former slave but escaped slavery. The narrative describes the horrors and injustices of American slavery, however, some pro-slavery forces might have argued that Douglass simply had the bad luck to have a series of cruel or incompetent owners. But this is notRead MoreThe Black Man s Burden By Henry Louis Gates Jr.1465 Words   |  6 Pages Alice Dunbar-Nelson and Langston Hughes, all luminaries of the New Negro literary movement, have been identified as anywhere from openly gay (Nugent) to sexually ambiguous or mysterious (Hughes). In a 1993 essay, â€Å"The Black Man’s Burden,† Henry Louis Gates Jr., The Root‘s editor-in-chief, notes that the Renaissance ‘was surely as gay as it was black.’† â€Å"At the beginning of the twentieth century, a homosexual subculture, uniquely Afro-American in substance, began to take shape in New York’s HarlemRead MoreDiscrimination in Henry Louis Gates Jr. ´s What ´s in a Name? and ADHD867 Words   |  4 PagesHenry Louis Gates, Jr.’s â€Å"What’s in a Name?† was an extremely emotional piece of literature. He wrote it to show people how hurt he was about his father, who was a well-respected man around his town, being called â€Å"George†. â€Å"George† was an infamous name that white people called all black people when they were discriminating against them. Gates hated that his father was put to a lower standard than he truly was by being called â€Å"George†. Like Gates, I hate discrimination. When I was younger, I wasRead More Use of Metaphors in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston2926 Words   |  12 Pagesown voice and realize her dreams through three marriages and a lifetime of hardships that come about from being a black woman in America in the early 20th century. Throughout the novel, Hurston uses powerful metaphors helping to â€Å"unify† (as Henry Louis Gates Jr. puts it) the novel’s themes and narrative; thus providing a greater understanding of Janie’s quest for selfhood. There are three significant metaphors in the novel that achieve this unity: the pear tree metaphor, metaphors representing theRead More Dreams in Song of Solomon, Narrative Frederick Douglass, Life of a Slave Girl, and Push2208 Words   |  9 PagesThough stated with a poetic justice, this statement did not hold true for all U.S. citizens. Many citizens were held in captivity, versus freedom, unable to pursue those inalienable r ights. After two hundred years of inequality, Martin Luther King, Jr., would provide one of the most vocal positions regarding the lack of equal rights owed to African Americans. In his 1969 Lincoln Memorial speech, King would historically state, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dreamRead MoreEssay On Patrick Henry And His Influence1133 Words   |  5 PagesJerico Overson Mr. Villate Mr. Howard Building America Term 1 October 26, 2017 Patrick Henry and His Influence Patrick Henry was an American lawyer born in the colony of Virginia while it was under Britain’s rule. He is mostly known for his rebellion and his call to action against British rule. Henry’s call to action was through a speech known as â€Å"Give me liberty, or give me death!† This speech was an inspiring to many people throughout Early America and it was vital in convincing the conventionRead MoreHate Speech769 Words   |  4 Pagesread are against regulating hate speech. They are: Paul McMaster author of Free Speech Versus Civil Discourse (173), author Susan Gellman, wrote Sticks and Stones Can Put You in Jail, But Can Words Increase Your Sentence? (176), and also Henry Louis Gates Jr., author of Lat Them Talk (182). McMaster believes fully in the right of the first amendment and that it should not be gone against. He believes that if hate speech is regulated then the first amendment is violated. I do agree with McMasterRead More The Immigrants of Amer ica Essay1628 Words   |  7 Pagesterrorists. In fact, to become citizen of the United States, immigrants must also be willing to serve America and fight against their former country if they are asked to (dummies.com). In a television series on PBS called Faces of America, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. interviewed the Japanese-American figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi about her family’s loyalty to America. Yamaguchi described how her grandfather was continued to fight for America against the Japan while the rest of