Henry Louis Gates Jr. (b. 1950) is an American literary critic, historian, and documentary filmmaker specializing in African American Studies. He received a BA in History from Yale University, graduating summa cum laude in 1973, then went on to earn an MA and PhD from Cambridge University. In 1976, Gates was employed as a lecturer in the Afro-American Studies Department at Yale before finishing his studies. The arrangement included the expectation that he would advance to an assistant professorship upon the completion of his dissertation. In 1979, he held a joint appointment in the Afro-American Studies and English Departments at Yale. He was promoted to associate professor in 1984, after which he was recruited by Cornell University, where he taught until 1989. Following a two-year appointment at Duke University, Gates joined the faculty at Harvard University, where he is currently Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, an endowed chair he has held since 2006, and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. His credentials, both as a student and professor, make him particularly well-suited to author a book about the United States after Reconstruction.

Gates has published extensively on Black history, culture, and literature.