Historian, filmmaker, PBS host and Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be the keynote speaker at the Council of the Great City Schools’ Virtual 65th Annual Fall Conference, which takes place October 19-23.  

Gates is the director of Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research — a position he has held since he arrived at Harvard in 1991. Additionally, he has authored or co-authored more than 20 books including Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, and The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.

Gates has also created 15 documentaries, including a six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, which he wrote, executive produced and hosted, earning an Emmy Award. His groundbreaking genealogy series, Finding Your Roots is now in its seventh season on PBS.  

Under the banner, “Rising Up and Meeting the Challenge,” the virtual conference will also feature 2021 National Teacher of the Year Juliana Uturbey, and journalist Ray Suarez, who will moderate an all-student national town hall. 

To register for the virtual conference visit https://cvent.me/n9Wbeq.