The Martha's Vineyard Times 1 of 2 Vineyard summer resident Henry Louis ("Skip") Gates Jr. has published a new book, "The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song." — Sam Moore Oak Bluffs summer resident Henry Louis (“Skip”) Gates Jr. has been filling in the blanks of our national race consciousness for decades. Gates, a Harvard professor, has authored 22 books and co-authored 13 others on Black life and racial divides in America. His latest, “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song,” is extraordinary, a taut, nonfiction thriller. “The Black Church” is essentially a secular book concerned with the role of Black churches in nurturing daily lives and providing hope, first to African American slaves, then to their descendants in a “free” America.