August 10, 2024

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., whose popular genealogy show “Finding Your Roots” has been running on PBS since 2012, will be the speaker at the MCC Chancellor’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Luncheon next January at Kansas City’s Union Station. The MCC Foundation event raises funds for scholarships for Metropolitan Community College students.

The scholarship luncheon, which will begin at 11 a.m. Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, features a national speaker each year and focuses on current events through the lens of Dr. King’s teachings. Martin Luther King III spoke at the 2024 event last winter.

Gates is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and institution builder. In “Finding Your Roots,” Gates — the show’s host and writer as well as a producer — continues his quest to “get into the DNA of American culture.” Each episode features a celebrity viewing their ancestral histories, sometimes learning of connections to famous (or infamous) people, discovering secrets, and of course sharing the emotional experience with viewers. His latest history series for PBS are “Gospel” and “Making Black America: Through the Grapevine.”

Gates has also produced several documentary films. “The Black Church” (PBS) and “Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches” (HBO), which he executive produced, each received Emmy nominations.

Gates recently (July 2024) received the coveted Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, which recognizes outstanding achievement by an African American. Gates is also the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University.

His most recent books include “The Black Box: Writing the Race,” “Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow” and “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.”

The Metropolitan Community College Foundation was formed in 1976 to advance the mission of the College by increasing student access to educational opportunities and supporting quality programs. More than half of MCC students require financial aid to realize their dreams of attending college. Thanks to the support of community donors, their dreams become reality at MCC.

To learn more about the 2025 MCC Chancellor’s Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship luncheon or how you can support the MCC Foundation, call 816.604.1195 or email [email protected].