The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced that Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be the 2002 Jefferson Lecturer. Gates is the W.E.B. DuBois Professor of Humanities at Harvard University where he also serves as chair of the Afro-American studies department. Widely published in literature and African American history, he is among the best known American scholars. The Jefferson lecturer is selected each year through a review process conducted by the National Council on the Humanities (NCH), the NEH's presidentially appointed advisory committee.

The Jefferson Lecture will be delivered on Friday, March 22, 2002, in the atrium of the Ronald Reagan Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington D.C. The annual advocacy event that takes place around the Jefferson Day event that is organized by the National Humanities Alliance and cosponsored by more than 20 organizations is now scheduled for March 21–22. There will be a reception for the new NEH chair, Bruce Cole on March 21, with Congressional visits on March 22. Details about the annual Jefferson Day advocacy event are available at http://www.nhalliance.org/jd/.