Shortly after he was chosen to be the 26th president of Harvard, Neil L. Rudenstine invited Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr., the chair of the Afro-American studies department, to lunch.
At one point during the meal, Rudenstine handed Gates a legal pad and a pen and told him to write down a fantasy faculty list.
Gates did, writing down such names as Lani C. Guinier '71, A. Leon Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and Lawrence Bobo. Rudenstine then told him to "go for it," Gates recalled.
Almost a decade later, practically all of the people he named are tenured professors at Harvard.
"The list is in my top drawer," Gates said Saturday, recounting the story in his opening remarks for the 30th anniversary celebration of Afro-American Studies at Harvard.
The celebration drew hundreds of alumni, past members of the department and scholars in the field to Harvard's campus.
Among the attendees were many of the founders of the department, including 10 of the 18 students who formed the Ad Hoc Committee of Black Students in 1968.
Members of the group, which was instrumental in agitating for the department's creation as well as changes in many of Harvard's policies towards minorities, were honored with DuBois medals at the opening ceremonies in Memorial Church.
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