You can find this lyric from the song “Keep Ya Head Up” (1993) in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Listen to the song here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

You can read this lyric from the song “U.N.I.T.Y.” (1993) in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read more about the song here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root.…

You can read this line from the play Stick Fly (2008) in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read more about the play here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow…

You can read this quote from “Redemption Song” (1980), and additional quotes by Bob Marley, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Listen to the song here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the…

You can find this quote from the essay “Culture: Negro, Black and Nigger,” in The Black Scholar (1970), and additional quotes by Johnnetta B. Cole, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Read more about, and watch video of, Cole here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins…

Read this quote from The Shadow That Scares Me (1968), and additional quotes by Dick Gregory, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root.…

Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black-history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof, to whom these “amazing facts” are an homage. Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 60:…

Read this quote from his speech at the Harlem rally for Fannie Lou Hamer (1964), and additional quotes by Malcolm X, in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also…

Read this quote and additional quotes by Harriet Ann Jacobs in Bartlett’s Familiar Black Quotations. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Read about the judge’s life here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and founding director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Root. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.