Your father was taking her to the hospital, but before he took her, she spoke to you. GROSS: There's a story behind why you joined the church. And I joined that church when I was 12 years old. It was almost like a Pentecostal church without the shouting and the speaking in tongues. You had to be faithful to your spouse (laughter).

If you joined that church, you couldn't dance. But it was a Methodist church, but it was almost a Fundamentalist church. And many of my cousins and old friends still worship at that church, and many of the people most dear to me who passed away are memorialized on the walls of the church. HENRY LOUIS GATES JR: Yeah, it was a small Methodist church. You attended your mother's church as a child. When you were young, your mother was Methodist, your father Episcopalian. Let's talk a little bit about your own life. In the acknowledgements in your book, you thank a list of people for helping you fully realize the awesome significance of the Black church and Black religious beliefs in your own life and in the lives of other people. Henry Louis Gates, welcome back to FRESH AIR. Our interview was recorded last Thursday. Gates is a professor at Harvard, where he directs the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. He also hosts the series 'Finding Your Roots,' in which, through DNA tests and in-depth genealogical research, he reveals the ancestral history of his well-known guests.

Henry Louis Gates has hosted many PBS series and written companion books exploring the history of African Americans, including the recent book and series on Reconstruction. But life eventually led him to become more of an observer than participant in religion. He also tells his story about the bargain he made with Jesus that led him to the church at age 12. He describes how churches became the foundation of Black religious, political, economic and social life. with the earliest Black Christian congregations roughly contemporaneous with the Declaration of Independence. He says Black churches were the first institutions built by Black people and run independent of white society in the U.S. The book explores the history of African American religions from the days of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the Black Lives Matter movement. My guest, Henry Louis Gates, has written a new book called 'The Black Church.' That's a companion to the PBS series he hosts of the same name.

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