#iv

All of the guests on 'Faces of America' were deeply moved by what we revealed about their ancestry. We were able to trace the ancestry of Native American writer Louise Erdrich back to 438 A.D. We found that Queen Noor is descended from royalty, and that's before she married King Hussein of Jordan. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#about #america #american #american writer #ancestry

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#america #black #country #ever #founded

Diversity doesn't mean black and white only. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#black and white #diversity #mean #only #white

For as long as I can remember, I have been passionately intrigued by 'Africa,' by the word itself, by its flora and fauna, its topographical diversity and grandeur; but above all else, by the sheer variety of the colors of its people, from tan and sepia to jet and ebony. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#africa #been #colors #diversity #else

I don't think the riots derailed the civil rights movement. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#civil rights #civil rights movement #i #movement #rights

I give a speech to the black freshmen at Harvard each year, and I say, 'You can like Mozart and ice hockey...' - and then I used to say 'golf,' but Tiger took over golf! - 'and Picasso and still be as black as the ace of spades.' ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#black #each #freshmen #give #golf

My father lived to be 97 and played bridge every day up to the end, so I've got a 50 percent chance of living a long life like him. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#chance #day #end #every #every day

One principle I've been fighting for that doesn't endear me to a lot of people is that black people can be just as complicated and screwed up as white people. Our motives can be just as base and violent. Suffering does not necessarily ennoble you. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#been #black #complicated #does #ennoble

Since the day Martin Luther King was killed, the black middle classes have almost quadrupled, but the percentage of black children living on or below the poverty line is almost the same. ↗

— Henry Louis Gates

#below #black #children #classes #day

I care much more about saving the lives of mothers and babies than I do about a fancy museum somewhere. ↗

— Melinda Gates

#babies #care #fancy #i #i care