153 Quotes by Henry Louis Gates

"We can revolutionize the attitude of inner city brown and black kids to learning. We need a civil rights movement within the African-American community."

"The first slave to read and write was the first to run away."

"You notice patterns. White guests often are mortified - that word again - when they learn their ancestors owned slaves. But I've never had a black guest who was upset to learn about white ancestry that probably involved forced sexual relations."

"I have no plans to slow down."

"It turns out one of my ancestors fought in the Continental Army, so I was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution."

"Instill respect for teachers."

"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.'"

"No white racist makes you get pregnant when you are a black teenager."

"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."

"If you don't tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. It's important that we nurture and protect these memories. Things change. Existence means change."