Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, received the 41st NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Literary Work (nonfiction) for his book “In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past” (2009), which expands on his PBS documentary series “African American Lives.”