After Ben Affleck Scandal, PBS Postpones 'Finding Your Roots'. And that is a long time. Update 1/31/23, 1:15 p.m. . So (laughter) given the example that President Obama set in calming down that kind of argument in America over you and this officer, what do you hear now coming from our president? GATES: And, you know, what's even more amazing, it's - one, it was my mother's third great grandfather - my fourth great grandfather. It's called the Beer Summit. And just the optics of a seeing a rich, white movie star pressure a black historian into suppressing information about this guy's slave-owning past and his family, that's really bad on all kinds of levels. "We were able to give him his grandfather's heroism and nobility back, that's just such a great feeling." 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. They were buried next to each other. I had no idea, no preparation. GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. Yeah. As of 2014, he has written seventeen books and created thirteen . executive producer (40 episodes, 2012-2023) Dyllan McGee . Dozens of your favorite THIRTEEN and PBS programs are available to watch on-demand on many popular platforms. You've been known to sing on the set of "Finding Your Roots.". I found the first edition when I was an adult. GROSS: You had family that passed for white. If so, youre in luck! Please try again. If we apply those percentages to the last . Gates first enrolled in college at Potomac State College in 1968, before transferring to Yale University in 1969. Who is Henry Louis Gates Jr. married to? Even if you were free and you were black GATES: In most states, you weren't allowed to vote. And I'm wondering if being laid up from an injury for a while affected your desire to - and your time to immerse yourself in books. GATES: OK. 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. Maria Hinojosas Great-Great-Grandfather Was a Railway CEO, Maria Hinojosa Discovers Her Ancestor Founded a City, John Lithgows Family Fled The Dominican Republic. And the title is Race Is A Social Construction, But Mutations Are Real" (ph). "duet by kimberely freeman" Henry Louis Gates Jr. GATES: And think about it. Gates is one of many famous African-Americans with Irish heritage, including President Barack Obama and award-winning author Alice Walker. You know, we used to say tribe, but now that's not politically correct - so the Yoruba ethnic group in Western Nigeria. Henry Louis Gates Jr. doesn't seem too worried about "critical race theory" or "white fragility" or "woke warriors" or any of those ridiculous buzzwords . But we have a disproportionately higher risk of sickle cell. And we filmed the whole thing. Thank God. Armstrong Williams, a person I really admire and like, I ask him, and he said absolutely not. And I was shocked by that. As host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Gates tells celebrities about their family history. Related Links. GATES: Yeah, I loved books. Biology matters. Tax ID: 26-2810489. And I have my mother's certificate from this vocational school where she learned to be a seamstress. The fifth season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. And I sat down. And my grandfather was so white, we called him Casper behind his back. S7 E7 | 0:01:16. And when I was a young teenager, early adolescence, my father and I connected through the news. Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that he and John Lithgow are DNA cousins. Author, Journalist, Industrialist, Businessman, American filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Born on September 16, 1950 So what I did - my father and I agreed, for science, that we'd put our genomes in the public domain so that any scholar or student can study our genome. And you got this from the 1870 census - (reading) that Jane Gates, age 51, female, mulatto, laundress and nurse, owns real estate valued at $1,400; born in Maryland; cannot read or write. But this week, Gates's wish came true. well-spoken characters in his father's tales actually existed and were related to him." view all Henry Louis Gates, Sr.'s Timeline. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes actors Claire Danes and Jeff Daniels on a journey into their roots, uncovering primal scenes from our nation's past. And the obituary said, died this day in Cumberland, Md., January 6, 1888; Aunt Jane Gates, an estimable colored woman. And she would stand up and read their obituary, their eulogy. 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. And she throws herself on the casket. HENRY LOUIS GATES: Well, let's see what we found on your mom's side of the family. July 28, 2009 -- Henry Louis Gates Jr., the black professor at the center of the racial story involving his arrest outside his Harvard University-owned house, has spoken proudly of his Irish roots . He is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. CORNISH: Meanwhile, the program "Finding Your Roots," what's been the fallout for the show? GROSS: Do you know - do you want to know your medical DNA? "My favorite class was an ancient history class in the fifth grade when I was 10 years old. The supposedly fearless leader battled the English, the Scots, the French and even the Romans, and struck fear into the heart of his enemies. #FindingYourRoots#FindingYourRoots airs Tuesdays. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". Greg Moore, Arizona Republic. Carlos Figueroa. And I don't know if that ruined your sports career forever, but it affected your leg forever. They flew him in from San Francisco. It is the first known work of its kind and has great historical and literary significance. And the reason I wanted to be a writer is that my mother wrote so beautifully and read so beautifully. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. The words Certified Genealogist and its acronym, CG, are registered certification marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, used under license by authorized associates following peer-reviewed competency evaluations. Henry Louis Gates. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. You get your Y DNA from your father, and that's what makes me a man. Gates is the host of the TV genealogy series "Finding Your Roots." It makes sensethe format allows Mr. Gates to interpret the findings for the guest and audience by pointing to images and text and then talking about them. Every reveal [on Finding Your Roots] is another chapter in world history. She loved nicknames (my brother Paul Edward is Rocky). Also, journalist Brian Palmer talks about how slavery and the Civil War are described at Confederate historic sites in the South. 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. "When I was filming Oprah, I realized that I had misunderstood the narrative arc of the shoot. Memories, Mean, People. Some books function more like reference books on your ancestors, while others are formatted like short biographies. And you don't have a Y DNA, so that's why you're a woman. ", The lesson of "Finding Your Roots" - we're all immigrants. And I loved the news. So where does that come from? You don't get $1,400 by saving your nickels and dimes as a slave, right? Copyright 2015 NPR. The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. By Emily Guskin, Mahvish Shahid Khan and Amy Mitchell. GROSS: Terry Gross interviewed Henry Louis Gates last May when he was in Philadelphia to accept the WHYY Lifelong Learning Award. He rediscovered the earliest African-American novels, long forgotten, and has published extensively on appreciating African-American literature as part of the Western canon. The Finding Your Roots host said discoveries about families like Cox's is a welcome lesson. And they stayed home, and they read. She paid cash for that house in what was largely a white neighborhood. No one's ever asked me that, but the answer's yes because I studied with a person who has been on your show, Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian playwright, when I went to the University of Cambridge. "A white man who slept with a black slave. As host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Gates tells celebrities about their family history. Genealogy is one of those things that you can keep doing forever, so itll be up to you, your genealogist, and your budget to determine a good stopping point for your project. Season 9 of "Finding Your Roots" on PBS has seen actors Danny Trejo and Julia Roberts discover more about their family history. And they got the brothers in uniforms with swords and stuff coming out of the church with this sad, black church music. Help me understand why this matters. It was during Winfrey's investigation that Gates Jr. discovered the potential of the show's format. As a mediator between [] GATES: Maybe for Christmas, OK, that's fine (laughter). GATES: Terry Gross speechless - first time in 35 years. There are no review sites like Yelp for genealogists, so it can be tough to know where to start. So you GATES: Because of this white man. Henry Louis Gates, PBS, . James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. 1. - Part 01 HD Watch. 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: Well, I think that you should have the right to - you have to ask someone. Here to talk about the controversy is NPR TV critic, Eric Deggans. 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. 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. RELATED VIDEOS. GATES: We know he was Irish from my DNA. GROSS: So I want to squeeze in one more question. And it's for my father. He looked white. His name was John Redman. We started to roll. Then he'd come back. So we knew he was Irish. And we'd have the chess board set up. Some projects take literally years to complete. DAVIES: Henry Louis Gates spoke with Terry Gross before a live audience in Philadelphia last May. And what's the real showstopper for me is the fact that my three sets of my fourth great grandparents lived 18 miles from where I was born. There are a couple of ways that your real-life book might differ from those the show, which Ive outlined below, but on the whole, books are pretty fabulous. But mutations exist. Gates Jr. says since Moore joined the show, she has "changed fundamentally what was possible in terms of doing a person's family tree.". Genealogy for Henry Louis Gates, Sr. (1913 - 2010) family tree on Geni, with over 240 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. And another person to interpret my genetic data because it's 6 billion base pairs, right? All rights reserved. Long before he became the comforting presence on TV, Gates Jr. had a successful tenured career as an academic across several prestigious universities. GROSS: And it's a way of outing people as not being who they think they are and not recognizing that we're all descended from so many different people. It's the damnedest thing I ever heard. The latest episode of Finding Your Roots airs on Tuesday January 31, and features 76-year-old Scottish actor Brian Cox. If my areas of expertise do not align with your needs, check out my guide for finding a professional genealogist. He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. GROSS: Let's look at your ancestry and see who's really in it. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates has apologized after PBS found he violated their editorial standards. So what that means is that it's the percent of - if you had a perfect family tree, what percent would be from sub-Saharan Africa? GATES: I did an episode with Oprah and Quincy Jones and Bishop T.D. Race is a social construction. The genealogist should walk you through the research process. The way to get a Finding Your Roots-style experience yourself is to hire a professional genealogist. I am descended from - on my father's side - from a white man who impregnated a black woman and, on my mother's side, from a white woman who was impregnated by a black man. Thank you so much for accepting this award. Related lists from IMDb users. Meryl Schumacker is Board-certified genealogist no. But it's just not those two genetic lines. And finally, PBS has a brand as a trusted provider of nonfiction entertainment, so they have to really safeguard that brand by making sure the stuff they present to viewers is accurate. GROSS: When you were 14, you had a football injury. You can read more about genealogists specialties in my blog post on the subject. 799. And he fought in - for the Continental Army. . And they fought in the Revolutionary War. So we went - my father showed us that picture and that obituary, and we went home. And on my desk set a red Webster's dictionary. Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that he and John Lithgow are DNA cousins. African-American - I love to joke about this. So PBS started an internal investigation to figure out what happened, and then on Wednesday they issued their findings. He rediscovered the earliest African-American novels . 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. Department of English Barker Center 12 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 Hours: M-F 9:00 am-5:00 pm Phone: 617-495-2533 Fax: 617-496-8737 edit data. She was smart and she went to college, which was unusual for a woman in that era. I love you being black. So, your real-life family history book might resemble a novel or coffee-table book, rather than a scrapbook like those on the program. Well, that might be related to police excesses and abuses, but it's a far end of the . 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. In the show, notable guests discover their family roots based on genealogical research and DNA results. African-Americans all think that they're a descendant from a Native American. The daughter of prominent black scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said her father's arrest last week at his Cambridge home has deeply saddened him . This is FRESH AIR. 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. Jakes and Chris Tucker. I think you know where I'm heading here. They had kids, and they're buried next to each other. Well talk with Gates about the process of finding . You might have prostate cancer that runs in your family. But when I started the series, it wasn't called "Finding Your Roots." "And I go, 'What? Even the Native Americans came from someplace else about 16,000 years ago. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. CLIP. And I gave it to her for birthday. 2. Popular ancestry show Finding Your Roots is deep into its ninth season but host Henry Louis Gates Jr. admits he's "surprised" the show has worked so well with white people included. Some genealogists even offer digital or e-book options! 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. References are not super common in this business due to privacy. GATES: Oh, my father and I were the first father and son of any race and the first African-Americans fully sequenced. Those same tens of thousands of American who saw the show are also unlikely to distinguish "soldier" from a one who is a member of a "regiment", "troop", "militia" or the "Native Guard". And the geneticists have found the identity finally of Jane Gates's paramour, the man GATES: Yes. 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. You might have breast cancer. More research time equals more discoveries, enabling the researchers to uncover those mind-blowing records fit for television. And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. 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 . Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an author, documentary filmmaker, essayist, and literary critic. Professor Henry Louis 'Skip' Gates Jr AP. I have the Ui Neil Haplotype. Brian Cox's family history in Scotland is investigated by host Henry Louis Gates Jr. on a Season 9 episode of "Finding Your Roots. Books can take a long time to produce, so make sure youre clear on the timeline and payment schedule. The fifth season of "Finding Your Roots" is currently showing on PBS. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. In 1970, he received a fellowship from Yale that would allow him to work and travel in Africa. Thank God. So you're saying I should have been an undertaker. The conclusions wouldnt exist without research, citations, and analysis, but those structural underpinnings arent emphasized the way that they are in a research report. Of course not. Now, Gates himself has put out a statement about the investigation, apologizing for not being transparent about his editing decisions, but in it that apology, he never says that the pressure from Affleck was the direct reason why he edited-out the slavery material. GATES: He wasn't even out the door, and I moved into his bedroom. GATES: Well, I was on "The View." CLIP. When it came to the bedroom, it seems that Niall of the Nine Hostages was even more fearless and energetic than he was on the battlefield. A research report walks you through the documents found, what those documents say and mean, and the conclusions that the genealogist has drawn about your family. This kind of research has been especially important for African-Americans whose ancestors had their names and families taken away when they were enslaved. Without the research, citations, and analysis in the report, conclusions are not possible. The differences perhaps point to different social and cultural histories within the south.". Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born on 16 September, 1950 in Keyser, West Virginia, United States, is an American professor. They begin their conversation by discussing how Henry's upbringing and the . GROSS: And you got this information from the 1870 census. If you have an ancestor that you are particularly interested in, its a good idea to let your genealogist know. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. I'm learning about things I didn't know anything about like Scotland, and the Black Watch, and the Royal Highlanders [a Scottish regiment].". Biography & Autobiography Rich & Famous Books 1 - 2 of 2 Sort by Publication Date Sort by Title A - Z Sort by Title Z - A Sort by Relevance Sort by Price - Low to High A family history book typically displays the conclusions about your family history, without overly emphasizing what went into reaching those conclusions. Variety has an exclusive first look at Gates' appearance; scroll down for [] It's a horrible way to start, in a way. What percent would be Native American? It was really, like, the photograph of her - of your great-great-aunt Jane Gates. This is . I love my mother, and I love my nickname. A plaque was unveiled in Cambridge in honour of Crummell and two other black pioneers: Gloria Carpenter . Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a popular and revered scholar who has written many acclaimed books and made many acclaimed documentaries about black history (and was also forced to drink a beer with the . And then it was a property requirement. And my Y DNA, which is - comes in an unbroken chain, descends from this Irishman. CORNISH: That's NPR's TV critic, Eric Deggans. 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. CORNISH: As it turns out, Affleck asked the program not to include the fact that one of his ancestors owned slaves, and the information did not air. Not sure which channel that is? And then when we go - when you were buried, she would stand up. The research for the stories on Finding Your Roots is completed by a team of people, including several professional genealogists who specialize in different subject areas, such as genetic genealogy. One thing that your real-life book probably will not contain is photographs of your ancestors that youve never seen before. GROSS: Your father died not too long ago - a few years ago. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. It's incredible that the mystery to my family tree - I'm looking toward Africa, and it was 18 miles away in Moorefield, W.Va., County Courthouse. Old photographs are usually kept in families and passed down through the generations, so family albums and attics are the most logical place to look for them. We wanted to see what more we could tell Ben Affleck about the roots of his family's interest in social justice. Published February 4, 2023 at 5:25 PM EST. Nobody knows about their heritage, and that's been the biggest surprise.". Henry Louis Gates, Jr. A new, four-part PBS series aspires to showcase the beauty, joy and achievements of the Black community. Is currently showing on PBS has seen actors Danny Trejo and Julia Roberts discover more about their heritage including! The Alphonse Fletcher University professor and Director of the family and payment.. 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'S TV critic, Eric Deggans '' - we 're all immigrants geneticists... Nprs programming is the host of the black community 's really in it ``..., tell them about your brother who 's a dentist Gates has after... A Finding your Roots-style experience yourself is to hire a professional genealogist `` we were able give! From the 1870 census cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - 50! At your ancestry and see who 's really in it by Emily Guskin, Shahid! The researchers to uncover those mind-blowing records fit for television kids, analysis... Rather than a scrapbook like those on the program Center for African and African American research that you are interested! Culture | Opinion to interpret my genetic data because it 's just not those two genetic.! Sites in the future 're saying I should have the right to - you have an Ancestor that you particularly., early adolescence, my father and son of any Race and the black community when. 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