The Phi Beta Kappa Society Presents Award for Distinguished Service to the Humanities to Henry Louis Gates

WASHINGTON, DC — August 1, 2024 —  The Phi Beta Kappa Society has named Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the recipient of The Phi Beta Kappa Society’s Award for Distinguished Service to the Humanities. The Society will present the award to Gates on August 1 at the 47th Triennial Council of the Society in Baltimore, Maryland.  

The Award, presented once every three years, recognizes individuals for their significant contributions in the field of the humanities. It includes a $10,000 prize and a medal named for Mr. and Mrs. William B. Jaffe, whose gift enabled the creation of the award in 1970. Mr. Jaffe was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Union College.   

“Henry Louis Gates, Jr. exemplifies the very best of the humanities through his groundbreaking research, compelling storytelling, and unwavering dedication to cultural education,” remarked Frederick M. Lawrence, Phi Beta Kappa Secretary and CEO. “His achievements have illuminated important aspects of our collective history and will have a lasting impact on both academia and society. It is a privilege to present him with this distinguished award.” 

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and hosted an array of documentary films. The Black Church (PBS) and Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches (HBO), which he executive produced, each received Emmy nominations. In January 2024, Finding Your Roots, Gates’s groundbreaking genealogy and genetics series, will return for its tenth season on PBS in January 2024. His next history series for PBS, Gospel, will premiere in February 2024. 

Gates is a recipient of a number of honorary degrees, including his alma mater, the University of Cambridge. Gates was a member of the first class awarded “genius grants” by the MacArthur Foundation in 1981, and in 1998 he became the first African American scholar to be awarded the National Humanities Medal. In 2001 he discovered the first novel written by a Black female author, The Bondwoman’s Narrative, by Hannah Craft. 

A native of Piedmont, West Virginia, Gates earned his B.A. in History, summa cum laude, from Yale University in 1973, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English Literature from Clare College at Cambridge in 1979, where he is also an Honorary Fellow. A former chair of the Pulitzer Prize board, he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and serves on a wide array of boards, including the New York Public Library, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Aspen Institute, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Library of America, and The Studio Museum of Harlem. In 2011, his portrait, by Yuqi Wang, was hung in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. In 2023, his portrait, by Kerry James Marshall, was hung at the Fitzwilliam Museum at The University of Cambridge.  He was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society in his junior year. In July, 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.