104 Quotes by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

A more humane form of capitalism is about the best I think we can get. Which might sound very reformist or conservative, but that’s basically where I am.

The most ironic outcome of the black Civil Rights movement has been the creation of a new black middle class which is increasingly separate from the black underclass.

One must learn how to be black in America.

We really invented the genre of tracing family trees and going back as far as we could on the paper trail. When the paper trail disappeared, we used DNA analysis. The technology was just being invented that allowed you to trace ancestry through DNA.

Each individual has a responsibility to get out of bed, learn their ABCs, learn your math tables, not use race and racism as an excuse.

My father, if anything, first and last, was a man of words. He loved stories; he didn’t live for stories, exactly, but I think he lived through stories. I think, like many writers, he loved stories about things he had experienced as much as, if not more than, he loved the experiences themselves.

I don’t think the riots derailed the civil rights movement.

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.

Fortunately, in President Obama, the child of an African and an American, we finally have a leader who is uniquely positioned to bridge the great reparations divide.