Gates is director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. His lecture, "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Digital Divide," will speak to the importance of his 1999 Encarta Africana project, especially as it relates to his current undertaking, the "Martin Luther King, Jr. After-School Program: Content to Bridge the Digital Divide."
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) was a scholar and civil rights activist who tried a vast variety of means to solve the problem of racism in the twentieth century. In 1896, he became the first black person to receive a doctorate from Harvard University and was the most prominent intellectual leader and political activist on behalf of African Americans in the first half of the twentieth century.
"Professor Gates is the modern day W.E.B. Du Bois," said Veta Tucker, Grand Valley professor of American and African American Literature. "He has taken African American literary scholarship beyond the classroom and into the public imagination."
Gates has produced several PBS documentary series, including "The Wonders of the African World." He will feature segments from his Encyclopedia Africana and will explore the consequences of having the American population divided into haves and have-nots based on access to information and computer technology.
His Grand Valley lecture was made possible, in part, by a grant from Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. A prelude carillon concert featuring Julianne Vanden Wyngaard, university carillonneur, is from 6:20-6:50 p.m. at the Beckering Family Carillon. A reception will follow the lecture. All events are free and open to the public. For more information visit www.gvsu.edu/fallarts or call (616) 331-2100.
