Henry Louis ?Skip? Gates, Jr., Ph.D. (born September 16, 1950) is an American (United States) literary critic (literary criticism), educator, scholar, writer, editor and public intellectual. He was the first African American to receive the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards for his teaching, research, and development of academic institutions to study black culture. In 2002, Gates was selected to give the Jefferson Lecture, in recognition of his "distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities." The lecture resulted in his 2003 book, The Trials of Phillis Wheatley.

As the host of the 2006 and 2008 PBS television miniseries African American Lives, Gates explored the genealogy of prominent African Americans. Gates sits on the boards of many notable arts, cultural, and research institutions. He serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor (Harvard University Professor) at Harvard University, where he is Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. (W. E. B. Du Bois Institute) Michael Kinsley referred to him as "the nations most famous black scholar." However he is criticized as non-representative of Black people by prominent African-American scholars such as Molefi Asante, John Henrik Clarke, and Maulana Karenga.