Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the most notable and outspoken scholars of African-American studies in the country, will speak on "Race and Class in America" on Thursday, Feb. 12, at UC Davis. His lecture begins at 8 p.m. in Freeborn Hall. The chair of Harvard's Afro-American studies department has emerged as a prolific author, whirlwind academic impresario and the leader of a movement to take black studies out of what some consider a politically correct arena and make it a more respected discipline. "Combine the braininess of the legendary black scholar W.E.B. DuBois and the chutzpah of P.T. Barnum, and the result is Henry Louis Gates Jr.," according to Time magazine's April issue naming Gates among the most influential people of 1997. Gates is a staff writer for the New Yorker and has published essays, reviews, interviews and profiles in numerous other magazines, scholarly periodicals and newspapers. He is co-editor of Transition magazine and has written several books. His next project is to edit the Encyclopedia Africana, a project first envisioned by DuBois.