And I couldn't imagine what, but two sets of those fourth great-grandparents are from my mother's line. And you - the last scene is the funeral. And we have a wall of degrees at home. Listen 9:01. Black people came here - not willingly, of course. And so he introduced me to the Yoruba people. GROSS: And it made me think about - because I was just reading this - it made me think about how a president can set the tone for the country on so many things, including, you know, racial issues, immigration. 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. 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. James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. If you are planning to get a family history book in the near future, now is the time to start emailing those distant cousins and rummaging around in your basement looking for pictures. This is . A family history book is like the entire car. Beginning with the assassination of Malcolm X in February 1965, And Still I Rise: From Black Power to the White House explores the last half-century of the African American experience. As host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Gates tells celebrities about their family history. 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 . You might have prostate cancer that runs in your family. And that night - and then daddy showed my brother and me, Dr. Paul Gates now, chief of dentistry at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital GATES: Well, it's the spirit of my mother. WAYNE, N.J. Henry Louis Gates Sr., 97, formerly a resident of Cumberland and Piedmont, W.Va., died peacefully on Christmas Eve, 2010, in Wayne, at home with his family gathered at his bedside. We're all admixed. And he fought in - for the Continental Army. RELATED VIDEOS. Related lists from IMDb users. In Georgia and Alabama the number is about 9 percent. Be sure to watch Finding Your Roots on PBS on Tuesday nights! Not all genealogists do, so youll want to look for someone who has books listed in their services. 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. Famed Harvard University Professor Henry Louis 'Skip' Gates Jr. got a major surprise when he started researching his own ancestry - in his . And she's the cook for Claudette Colbert. So reading this - that she's a mulatto; she'd been a slave - the first question that comes to my mind - and I don't know if it was the first question that came to yours - was, was she raped by the man who owned her? GATES: I said, thank God. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. Henry Louis Gates is married to a white woman. ET: The headline on this article was updated for further clarity around Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s remarks. I asked a PBS representative that question many times, and she would only repeat back the language that's from this statement. And he mustered in in Winchester, Va., on Christmas Day, 1778, and was mustered down the Continental Army in April of 1784. All rights reserved. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. I said, well, I've never met Donald Trump. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. GROSS: Is that too personal? Where does your nickname Skip come from? As I mentioned before, be sure to inquire about digital options, if that is a priority for you. It was during Winfrey's investigation that Gates Jr. discovered the potential of the show's format. A family history book typically displays the conclusions about your family history, without overly emphasizing what went into reaching those conclusions. GATES: But everyone who's in one of those databases has given some kind of permission. James Crowley, who was responding to a 911 caller's report of men breaking and entering the residence. And she and Claudette Colbert are both unmarried mothers. And most DNA companies in the United States will tell you that they have never tested an African-American who is 100 percent from sub-Saharan Africa. - Part 01 HD Watch. Or they stayed home, and they drew. References are not super common in this business due to privacy. - like the Aunt Jemima figure. 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. Henry Louis Gate was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, W.Va. "It was so popular that PBS said, 'nah, you gotta cut white people in on this,'" Gates Jr. laughed. Now you can get a full sequence for less than $5,000 - some people say $1,000 or $2,000. I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. 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. I'm here to ask, on behalf of our production staff, if you will be a guest in next season GATES: Of "Finding Your Roots." Now think about that. And when I was a young teenager, early adolescence, my father and I connected through the news. Watching a list of 26 titles created 26 Jan 2019 GROSS: Whoa. 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 Jr. added, "Oprah just broke down and cried in the middle of the shoot. African-Americans all think that they're a descendant from a Native American. Reader, ed. Except in the next scene, I showed him their headstones. Gates accused the arresting officer, who is white, of . And they stayed home, and they read. 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 . And the DNA tests we were doing at that time - when they analyzed my Y DNA, it went to Ireland. Despite being known for playing the menacing Logan Roy in HBO's Succession, Gates Jr. explains how the formidable actor was reduced to tears by revelations about his family history. But when I started the series, it wasn't called "Finding Your Roots." "This is a series about the range the range of Blackness and its full complexity, including out-of-the-box manifestations that you never would have dreamed of.". 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. Many thanks! Henry Louis Gates is an American literary critic, historian, professor, filmmaker, and public intellectual. Henry serves as a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. That's how much the science of genetics has changed in terms of the retail market since 2009. And the only reason that I started making the series that became "Finding Your Roots" is because of that obituary and that photograph. Jeff Daniels sits with "Finding Your Roots" host Henry Louis Gates Jr. in an episode from Season 9 on PBS. If my areas of expertise do not align with your needs, check out my guide for finding a professional genealogist. But then President Obama called you both together. GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. Henry Louis Gates, (born Sept. 16, 1950, Keyser, W.Va., U.S.), U.S. critic and scholar. The researchers also found that as many as one in 12 men in Ireland have the same DNA as the Irish king -- and in Ireland's northwest, that figure rises to one in five. One important distinction between the Books of Life on Finding Your Roots and a book that you might get from a genealogist is that the books from the show are scrapbooks with relatively little context written down. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Not sure which channel that is? Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. But I saw that photograph and read her obituary on the day that we buried my father's father, Edward St. Lawrence Gates. GATES: So obviously somebody gave her that money. Tax ID: 26-2810489. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FINDING YOUR ROOTS"). 2. GATES: I did an episode with Oprah and Quincy Jones and Bishop T.D. 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. They had kids, and they're buried next to each other. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Watch: Ed Norton reacts to slave-owning ancestors in "Finding Your Roots". Weaving together stories of soldiers, settlers, immigrants and entrepreneurs, Gates travels from World War I battlefields to Civil War prison camps to America's most infamous . And I watched reruns of early black films like "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah." Some books have a lot of pictures, while others have zero or very few images. If you don't tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. The show proved so successful, it was continued in various guises before eventually developing into 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. And she dies of a broken heart because her little girl passes for white and goes off - and never sees her again. "A white man who slept with a black slave. But it's just not those two genetic lines. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests family histories himself. And we'd have the chess board set up. GROSS: Let's look at your ancestry and see who's really in it. GROSS: Have you been medically DNA tested? ", Everyone Practices Cancel Culture | Opinion, Deplatforming Free Speech is Dangerous | Opinion. If you dislike a persons writing style, or if you have difficulty understanding what theyre saying, its probably not a good idea to hire them to write a 100-page book for you. OK. There are similar shows on TV, but the host knows why his is a cut above the rest. CLIP. GROSS: It's mind-boggling. The fifth season of "Finding Your Roots" is currently showing on PBS. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. "When I was filming Oprah, I realized that I had misunderstood the narrative arc of the shoot. However, it is perfectly acceptable to ask to view some sample pages or images to give you an idea of what youre getting. And I want to start with the person who got you started in genealogy. African American Studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born in Keyser, West Virginia on September 16, 1950, the son of Henry Louis Gates Sr. and Pauline Augusta Coleman. So, your real-life family history book might resemble a novel or coffee-table book, rather than a scrapbook like those on the program. 1913 June 8, 1913. 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". In 1970, he received a fellowship from Yale that would allow him to work and travel in Africa. The video will be available shortly. The headline read " DEATH OF 'AUNT JANE GATES ' ": Last night at 11 o'clock "Aunt Jane Gates," colored, a . GROSS: So having done your, like, ancestry and everything, were you close to your parents? executive producer (33 episodes, 2012-2023) Deborah Clancy Porfido . (Read Henry . Yeah. GATES: Otherwise they wouldn't be in a database. "We were able to give him his grandfather's heroism and nobility back, that's just such a great feeling." 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 . He couldn't hear me, couldn't see me. PBS. Henry Louis Gates : biography 16 September 1950 - Supporters of Afrocentrics such as Molefi Asante and others say that they assert not that the study of Africa should be exclusively Black, but that the approach of Afrocentricity is critical for setting up black people as agents of their own history. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born Sept. 16, 1950, in Keyser, W.Va. His father worked at the local paper mill during the day and as a janitor at a telephone company at night. Thank you. And my mother used to write the eulogies, the obituaries for all the black people in the Potomac Valley, where I grew up. Well talk with Gates about the process of finding . People might remember the Beer Summit, when you were stopped in your own home trying to unjam a lock after a long trip. GATES: And my father lived to be 97 1/2 without any dementia. On the show, they usually find photographs by contacting the guests relatives or distant cousins. It's a lot of data to process. ", When the genealogist tells him he does indeed have Irish links, Gates says, "I find this oddly moving. It's the damnedest thing I ever heard. 1104, certified through 10 November 2023. guide for finding a professional genealogist. GROSS: Yeah. He was 97, as you said. 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. And I don't think that he understands how much power that - to heal, to bind that the Oval Office metaphorically has. 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. 1. Update 1/31/23, 1:15 p.m. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, . It is the first known work of its kind and has great historical and literary significance. Who is Henry Louis Gates Jr. married to? Was this an equal sexual relationship? Of course, you can do that through mitochondrial DNA," he told Newsweek. GATES: The Gateses all looked - my father looked white. But we have a disproportionately higher risk of sickle cell. *48.6% Sub-Saharan African. But you know what? They lived together. In general, however, a family history book is a bound or digital book with sections devoted to your ancestors. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. I only did black people. In my experience, family history books may cost anywhere from $5,000 to over $50,000. (Preston Crawley) "I love being in Utah because I love genealogy," Henry Louis Gates Jr. said as he addressed BYU . Many other genealogists have not worked on Finding Your Roots, but are massively talented and can help you learn more about your family history, similar to the way guests do on the show. (If youre interested in a research report, you can hop over to my guide about how to hire a professional genealogist.). For $50,000, they sequenced my father, me and then 12 of the guests who were in "Faces Of America" - not a full genome but a dense genotyping. And deep down, I realized in retrospect that my desire to make films was probably born about that time. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and . One, dated Saturday, January 7, 1888, was from the Cumberland Evening Times. S9 E2 - 52m 11s. You were 9 years old when you found her picture. Of course not. More research time equals more discoveries, enabling the researchers to uncover those mind-blowing records fit for television. And she invents this pancake mix, and they become fabulously wealthy. CORNISH: That's NPR's TV critic, Eric Deggans. Henry Louis Gates, PBS, . This kind of research has been especially important for African-Americans whose ancestors had their names and families taken away when they were enslaved. Jeff Daniels sits with "Finding Your Roots" host Henry Louis Gates Jr. in an episode from Season 9 on PBS. We wanted to see what more we could tell Ben Affleck about the roots of his family's interest in social justice. And they have a horse-drawn carriage. And a doctor from the Philippines taught me to play chess at West Virginia University Medical Center in Morgantown, W.Va. And he'd come around in rounds. He looked white. Like I said earlier, family history books can vary widely from one genealogist to the next. And she come to - it's the woman who invents box pancake mix - right? So overseer, slave plantation - rape, right? Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? GROSS: So you know your medical background and if you're GATES: Yeah. But I also watched TV. And my Y DNA, which is - comes in an unbroken chain, descends from this Irishman. You have to get permission. 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. Help me understand why this matters. Finding Your Roots is partnered with the genealogy company Ancestry.com, which recently found in a survey that most people (over 50%) know more about fictional TV families like the Roys in Succession, than they do about their own family history. And it's for my father. Gates has been awarded many titles, such as Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, to name a few. On the PBS series, Gates visits Trinity College to find his roots, and says to the genealogist, "Do I look like an Irishman to you? But I think that you should have to get permission before someone is creeping around in your DNA. It comes from slavery. And my father would just make up stories and tell my brother and me. You should also have an opportunity to view a proof of the book before printing. A report is a little more nitty gritty than a book, sort of like how understanding the mechanics of an engine will help you understand what makes a car run. That the emotional apex would not be around them discovering where in Africa their mother's mother's line came from. Thank God. Gates was born in Keyser, West Virginia, to Henry Louis Gates Sr. (c.1913-2010) and his wife Pauline Augusta (Coleman) Gates (1916-1987). He married Pauline Augusta Coleman. And I sat down. And I think that we throw terms like that around too loosely. Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University and Director of the W. E. B. 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