Henry Louis Gates

When he was 12, Gates made a bargain with Jesus in an attempt to save his mother's life. He talks about how that altered his own life, and his new book and PBS series, The Black Church.

Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. looks at the cultural legacy of African slaves brought to Latin America.

Last year, Gates uncovered a manuscript of a novel purportedly written in the 1850s by an African American woman who had been a slave. It is the first known work of its kind and has great historical and literary significance. The Bondwomans Narrative by Hannah Crafts, edited by Henry Louis Gates, has just been published (Warner Books). Well talk with Gates about the process of finding, authenticating and publishing the novel. Gates is the W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Humanities and chair of the Department of African-American Studies at Harvard University.