The first line of Gates' sheet reads simply: "Stellar faculty."

Under that heading, in Gates' handwriting are listed four names: "Anthony Appiah, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Cornel West, William Wilson."

K. Anthony Appiah, now professor of Afro-American studies and of philosophy, came to Harvard from Duke with Gates. And Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Cornel R. West '73 are both professors of Afro-American studies and hold joint appointments in the Divinity School.

It was West's appointment that really put Harvard's Afro-Am program in the national mainstream spotlight.

West, a former Princeton professor whose mega-successful books and Baptist-preacher speaking style make him a popular lecturer across the nation, is arguably the most prominent black intellectual alive.

As a bonus, Gates has brought in author Jamaica Kincaid and producer Spike Lee as visiting professors.

"Skip Gates was genuinely someone who didn't want to come to Harvard and be the only star; he wanted to build a stellar department," Appiah says.

And though Gates celebrated his 46th birthday on Monday, his biggest present this year came a few months early when the last "giant" on his list--sociologist William Julius Wilson--defected to Harvard this spring.

Wilson's decision to move from the University of Chicago to Harvard made headlines across the nation. Wilson--whom Gates calls the "coup of coups"--cited two reasons for the move: Harvard's brain trust of African American thinkers and its politically connected halls.

And indeed, the house that Gates built at 1430 Mass. Ave. is home to the brain trust.

But the politically connected halls are closer to the River, at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. Wilson, although he is teaching an Afro-Am course in the spring, is actually Wiener professor of public policy at the Kennedy School.

Nevertheless, Gates says that with Wilson's presence, the Department of Afro-American Studies can realize the next (unwritten) goal: for Afro-Am's stellar faculty to impact national political debate.

Moving Toward Policy

Just a year ago, before Wilson's hiring, the director of the University of Michigan's Center for Afro-American Studies Michael Awkward told The Ethnic News Watch that he was hesitant to praise Harvard's Afro-Am department because it lacked a social science perspective.

"Certainly with people like Gates, Anthony Appiah and Cornel West, the department has superb potential," Awkward said. "But Rome wasn't built in a day. We'll have to see what develops."