Henry Louis Gates

Wherever you go in the history of America, there have been Black people making contributions, but their contributions have been obscured, lost, buried.

My father and I made genetics history. We were the first African-Americans and the first father and son anywhere to have their genomes sequenced.

So many people of color who made major contributions to American history have been trapped in the purgatory of history.

What people forget is that the most radical thing about Obama is that he was the first black man in history to imagine that he could become president, who was able to make other Americans believe it as well. Other than that, he is a centrist, just like I try to be. He’s been bridging divisions his whole life.

America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history, and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.

The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.