HENRY LOUIS GATES JR., is a towering figure in the field of African American history and literature. He is closely associated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where he built his academic career and currently serves as Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Gates also has longstanding ties to the University of Cambridge in the UK. In 1973, he was the first African American awarded a Paul Mellon Fellowship at Cambridge. Only 22 years old at the time, he went on to earn a Ph.D., in English from the institution. Half a century later, Cambridge has recognized Gates’s historic achievement, exceptional contributions to his field, and longstanding engagement with the university. In 2022, he received an honorary degree from Cambridge. Further enshrining the renowned American scholar’s connection to the British institution, a portrait of Gates was unveiled on Oct. 2, and now hangs in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. KERRY JAMES MARSHALL, “Henry Louis Gates Jr,” 2020 (acrylic on PVC panel in artist’s frame, 46 5/8 x 41 x 3 3/4 inches / 118.3 x 104.3 x 9.5 cm). | © Kerry James Marshall, Courtesy the artist and David […]
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