Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist and host of Finding Your Roots is the Alphonse Fletcher University professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. With Making Black America, he narrates the networks and social organizations built by and for Black individuals and communities through conversations, interviews and reflections.
Professor Gates, with directors Stacey L. Holman and Shayla Harris, recounts the establishment of the Prince Hall Masons in 1775 through the formation of all-Black towns and business districts, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, destinations for leisure and the social media phenomenon of Black Twitter. Gates sits with noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders and old friends to discuss this world behind the color line and what it looks like today. Making Black America takes viewers into an extraordinary world that showcases how Black people have defined Blackness in ways that transformed America itself.
"Making Black America is not just about struggle. It's about the beauty, the love, the joy, and the laughter that African Americans created in spaces for us and by us,” said Holman, the series producer and director.
“I’m incredibly honored to have been part of this groundbreaking series. It was exhilarating to work alongside the powerful creative trio of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Stacey L. Holman, and Shayla Harris, at the helm of this series. The focus on joy and community is a story we all need to learn and celebrate,” remarked executive producer Dyllan McGee.
“Thanks to Bank of America’s sponsorship, we are able to tell the full story of the struggles and triumphs that define African American History,” Gates noted. To learn more about Gate’s’ passion for history and the African American experience, you can listen to the final episode of season three of our That Made All the Difference podcast.
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