It's a lot of data to process. They spoke in front of an audience last May when Gates received WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award. The Life Summary of Henry Louis. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Over the course of his many years hosting history and genealogy shows on PBS, scholar and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. has guided dozens of people through emotional deep dives into their family histories, unearthed with the help of DNA and a team of expert . Abby Wolf (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2012), a collection of three decades of his work, was published in 2012. And that is the lesson of "Finding Your Roots. GROSS: Is that too personal? said Henry Louis Gates Jr. "Encarta Africana 2000 is a captivating and engaging resource that can educate students of all ages." Within its 3,600 articles, the latest version includes new information and multimedia features that will allow students to learn even more about African culture and history. In his 2016 book, Finding Your Roots, Season 2: The Official Companion to the PBS Series, and in an article at The Huffington Post, Henry wrote that his 23andme DNA test results state his genetic ancestry to be: *50.1% European. Jeff Daniels sits with "Finding Your Roots" host Henry Louis Gates Jr. in an episode from Season 9 on PBS. GATES: Very close to them, yeah, particularly to my mother. And at this point, I'd run over to my mother and say, Mama, I'll never pass for white, Mama. Reader, ed. GATES: You know, I'm totally exposed. So you found out that your ancestors were, like, 18 miles away from where you lived. kannonspatafora66si29. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Dr. Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. When my daughters were born, I had them tested for sickle cell because - black people are not the only people in the world that have sickle cell. DEGGANS: Yeah, that's true. And consequently, you are now a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He has chaired Harvard University's department of Afro-American Studies for many years. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. It's a horrible way to start, in a way. They should also be a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG). - like the Aunt Jemima figure. GROSS: You had family that passed for white. GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. But I think that one of the mottos of finding your roots is that there is no such thing as racial purity, that these people who have fantasies, these white supremacists, of this Aryan brotherhood, you know, this Aryan heritage that is pure and unsullied and untainted, that they're living in a dream world. GATES: And they said, OK, we won't tell you. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. GROSS: But you had family that passed for white. (SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT'S "EGYPTIAN FANTASY"). It was better to be free than be a slave, but you were free but not free. Even if you were free and you were black GATES: In most states, you weren't allowed to vote. GROSS: And I read you talking about this. Thank you so much for accepting this award. But then President Obama called you both together. On Finding Your Roots, researchers may spend upwards of 100 hours or more on a single guests tree and DNA analysis combined (or so Ive heard). This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. GROSS: It's mind-boggling. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. You were 9 years old when you found her picture. A family history book can also be expensive, as weve covered, so its worth doing your research to find the best genealogist for your project. To put it simply, Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a man who knows his history, and if knowledge is power, he is a powerful man indeed. So I want to read something that you wrote about her. GROSS: OK. On your mother's side, you found out that you had three men in the family who were freed slaves - freed before 1776. The good news is that several of the genealogists who have worked on Finding Your Roots, as well as other shows like Who Do You Think You Are?, are available for hire. This came as no surprise to me because the first time I saw the guy giving an interview on television he said the word "Black" five times before . So maybe you can help me. Existence means change. GATES: Our TV - when we woke up, the TV was on, and nobody ever turned it off until you went to sleep. GATES: Well, I think that you should have the right to - you have to ask someone. My mother used to read me - the greatest book ever written to me was "The Poky Little Puppy," right? Author, Journalist, Industrialist, Businessman, American filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Born on September 16, 1950 Also, journalist Brian Palmer talks about how slavery and the Civil War are described at Confederate historic sites in the South. Then he'd come back. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Watch: Ed Norton reacts to slave-owning ancestors in "Finding Your Roots". Furthermore, he is credited for 14 documentaries, and some of the most noted ones are: let the church say, Amen, Africa's great civilization, and many more. PBS says it's now delaying the airing of new episodes until it can improve editorial oversight. My mother was a seamstress, as you know. As of 2014, he has written seventeen books and created thirteen . They begin their conversation by discussing how Henry's upbringing and the . I don't think that's true for very many people in this room or any - or many people who are watching this show. You know, we used to say tribe, but now that's not politically correct - so the Yoruba ethnic group in Western Nigeria. They came in slave ships. Things change. If youre a celebrity or public figure, then probably yes! And the only reason that I started making the series that became "Finding Your Roots" is because of that obituary and that photograph. Literally thousands of people just like you read this blog post every month, which is both free and ad-free, so I would be truly grateful if you could chip in a few bucks to keep it running and to support future posts. I have a couple black friends - I went to Yale with Ben Carson and with Ben's wife. GROSS: And then your slightly more contemporary ancestors not having any rights in the country, you know, or very few rights - not being able to vote, having to live in segregation. We're all admixed. Henry Louis Gates. FINDING YOUR ROOTS WITH HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR., Season Nine is a production of McGee Media, Inkwell Media, Kunhardt Films and WETA Washington, D.C. Corporate support for FINDING YOUR ROOTS WITH . a book. GROSS: Whoa. . That's how much the science of genetics has changed in terms of the retail market since 2009. The latest episode of Finding Your Roots airs on Tuesday January 31, and features 76-year-old Scottish actor Brian Cox. GROSS: So you assume it was not a consensual relationship, but she managed to own her own home five years after being freed from slavery. We started to roll. "My favorite class was an ancient history class in the fifth grade when I was 10 years old. Henry Louis Gates Jr. 0:30. Books can take a long time to produce, so make sure youre clear on the timeline and payment schedule. And I watched reruns of early black films like "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah." You can say on the one hand that race is a social construction. in Keyser, West Virginia, USA , United States (72 years), This form allows you to report an error or to submit additional information about this family tree: Henry Louis GATES (1950), Biography from Wikipedia (see original) under licence CC BY-SA 3.0. If you remember, it was called "African-American Lives." Two men at the center of the controversy are linked by their Irish heritage. The largest single event explicitly tied to race in the way it was covered during the year was the arrest on July 16, 2009 of Gates, who was mistakenly suspected of trying to break in to his own home. I killed my mama. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. And your father was a tailor, which is why we GATES: And my mother went to Atlantic City. Nobody knows about their heritage, and that's been the biggest surprise.". As we honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King today, we're going to listen to an interview Terry recorded with historian Henry Louis Gates. Testing showed he had ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa, Ireland and England. Guests from all ethnic backgrounds are welcomed as Gates Jr. investigates the lineage of his celebrity guests. After more than 500 years of skewed, racist, Euro-centric interpretations of African history and culture, Wonders of the African World with Henry Loius Gates Jr. was to be a bold step towards reclaiming the oft-overlooked and minimized splendor of African civilization. Help me understand why this matters. Unfortunately Gates failed in delivering on this, and instead left the . They know about their heritage.' GATES: The Gateses all looked - my father looked white. In 2009, when I did "Faces Of America," a retail value of full genomic sequencing was $300,000. It's - remember, it's - my father dragged my brother and me upstairs in his parents' home and made us wait why he'd look through half a dozen of his father's scrapbooks, about which we knew nothing - complete mystery, a secret to us - looking for that obituary. And that is a long time. DAVIES: Henry Louis Gates spoke with Terry Gross before a live audience in Philadelphia last May. To be clear, I dont work for Finding Your Roots; Im just a professional genealogist who knows people who have worked on the show and I was present for the filming of an episode. Professor Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard and has produced numerous books and documentaries about African-American history. If you don't tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. And the last thing I did before I went to bed was - we always had a desk in our bedrooms and had a bookcase. Some projects take literally years to complete. It's a gift - and for my mom. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. But I saw that photograph and read her obituary on the day that we buried my father's father, Edward St. Lawrence Gates. And when they analyzed my mitochondrial DNA, it went to England. I'm learning about things I didn't know anything about like Scotland, and the Black Watch, and the Royal Highlanders [a Scottish regiment].". And he'd make a couple - a move. He was there in exile because he had been in prison and to be offering civil war for 27 months and was given a fellowship at the University of Cambridge. And I learned a lot about the medium. 4 min read. Tax ID: 26-2810489. The show tends to highlight only a couple of ancestors for televisiona smart strategy, because it allows the shows researchers to allocate larger chunks of time towards researching the most interesting people. And we're listening to Terry's interview with Henry Louis Gates. A plaque was unveiled in Cambridge in honour of Crummell and two other black pioneers: Gloria Carpenter . well-spoken characters in his father's tales actually existed and were related to him." view all Henry Louis Gates, Sr.'s Timeline. And they got the brothers in uniforms with swords and stuff coming out of the church with this sad, black church music. The Bondwomans Narrative by Hannah Crafts, edited by Henry Louis Gates, has just been published (Warner Books). So it was just the two of us and my mom, right? Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests' family histories himself. Finding Your Roots debuted on PBS on March 25, 2012, and has now been running for nine seasons. In a real book from a genealogist, context like that provided by Mr. Gates on the show would be written down, so that you could read the book yourself without needing an interpreter to explain things. And the reason I wanted to be a writer is that my mother wrote so beautifully and read so beautifully. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a documentary television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that premiered on March 25, 2012, on PBS.In each episode, celebrities are presented with a "book of life" that is compiled with information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories, learn about familial connections and discover . In a commentary in the New York Times, prominent historian, educator Henry Louis Gates cited the work of historian Carter Woodson, pioneer in 1926 of what has become Black History Month. Armstrong Williams, a person I really admire and like, I ask him, and he said absolutely not. So you GATES: Because of this white man. And it turned out - my father used to say, you know, your mother's family is really distinguished, too? GROSS: Yeah. CORNISH: And they said that they found the show's producers violated PBS standards by failing to shield the creative and editorial process from improper influence. And she dies of a broken heart because her little girl passes for white and goes off - and never sees her again. GROSS: Let's look at your ancestry and see who's really in it. GROSS: And you got this information from the 1870 census. Combining family tree records with DNA genealogy technology, he initially pitched the show as "Alex Haley in a test tube" (Haley was the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family). He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Family history books are most similar to the Books of Life featured on the show, so Ill be talking about them here. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests family histories himself. Some books have a lot of pictures, while others have zero or very few images. And one of the, you know, wonderful people on "The View" said did I think that Donald Trump is racist. You said that after - you had been getting death threats and these angry emails and everything. You may yet have your own Bernie Sanders-style moment of genealogy-fueled surprise in the near future (though I cant say whether itll be because youre related to Larry David). And the last thing I did before I went to bed on July 2, 1960, was to look up the word estimable. GATES: And, you know, what's even more amazing, it's - one, it was my mother's third great grandfather - my fourth great grandfather. But just in case youre not, there are other ways to get the Finding Your Roots experience off-screen. When Bernie Sanders turned the page in his Book of Life, he was so shocked he put his hand to his temple and said, Youre kidding Oh my god! and burst out laughing. Gates Jr. explained how mitochondrial DNA, inherited from the female ancestry line, doesn't change. Henry Louis Gate was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, W.Va. John Lithgow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are DNA cousins! Genealogy for Henry Louis Gates, Sr. (1913 - 2010) family tree on Geni, with over 240 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. They lived together. In a PBS series on African-American ancestry that he hosted in 2008, Gates discovered his Irish roots when he found he was descended from an Irish immigrant and a slave girl. With Ben 's wife written seventeen books and created thirteen Ireland and England day. To bed on July 2, 1960, was to look up the word estimable take a long to. Been getting death threats and these angry emails and everything ancestry and see who 's really it! Turned out - my father used to say, you know, mother! Editorial oversight on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing does not the. At Harvard I really admire and like, 18 miles away from you! 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