Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities and the chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Harvard University. The author of seven previous books, including the widely acclaimed memoir Colored People, Professor Gates has also edited several anthologies and is coeditor with Kwame Anthony Appiah of Encarta Africana, an encyclopedia of the African Diaspora. An influential cultural critic, he is a frequent contributor to "The New Yorker and other publications and is the recipient of many honors, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship and the National H...