In 1970, he received a fellowship from Yale that would allow him to work and travel in Africa. Also, journalist Brian Palmer talks about how slavery and the Civil War are described at Confederate historic sites in the South. It doesn't exist. GATES: We know he was Irish from my DNA. His PBS series "Finding Your Roots" returns for its ninth season in January, and his latest documentary series . My mother used to read me - the greatest book ever written to me was "The Poky Little Puppy," right? Barack Obama understood that and, I think, certainly helped our nation to heal. Accuracy and availability may vary. And consequently, you are now a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. And they fought in the Revolutionary War. 799. 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. So we knew he was Irish. GROSS: And it was reported as if it was a break-in, and a police officer came and arrested you. And that is the lesson of "Finding Your Roots. I mean, they know Donald Trump. And when this little girl's passing for - she passes for white and breaks her mother's heart. And I wanted to be from them. (These numbers have been updated since this post was written to reflect current market rates.) CORNISH: Meanwhile, the program "Finding Your Roots," what's been the fallout for the show? CORNISH: So as we said, this show features celebrities learning about their family history, and the controversy actually emerged from the Sony email hack, right? Gates wrote a friend of his who was a top executive at Sony to ask for advice after Affleck objected to the inclusion of all this slavery material, so those emails came out in April after hackers took a bunch of information from Sony and WikiLeaks published the material. "My idea was that I would reveal where in Africa, on a guest mother's mother's line, they had hailed from. That the emotional apex would not be around them discovering where in Africa their mother's mother's line came from. They spoke in front of an audience last May when Gates received WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. 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. And my mother used to write the eulogies, the obituaries for all the black people in the Potomac Valley, where I grew up. My momma called me Skippy from the time I was born. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests family histories himself. And the last thing I did before I went to bed on July 2, 1960, was to look up the word estimable. Some books function more like reference books on your ancestors, while others are formatted like short biographies. 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. 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 "And I go, 'What? GROSS: When you were 14, you had a football injury. 1913 June 8, 1913. Gates Jr., a self-confessed fan of Succession, was thrilled when Cox agreed to do the show, and shared a behind-the-scenes video of the segment on Twitter on Monday. And so then they came in - this is a big deal back in 2008. On the show, they usually find photographs by contacting the guests relatives or distant cousins. "When I was filming Oprah, I realized that I had misunderstood the narrative arc of the shoot. Black people came here - not willingly, of course. 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 You don't get $1,400 by saving your nickels and dimes as a slave, right? 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 . Without the research, citations, and analysis in the report, conclusions are not possible. I could've won the Nobel Prize, and somebody would say congratulations. . That's the way it is. GATES: And think about it. As soon as the Civil War ended, they became common law husband and wife GATES: Which was illegal in Mississippi. So you found out that your ancestors were, like, 18 miles away from where you lived. My mother was a seamstress, as you know. 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? They were buried next to each other. When Henry Louis Gates Sr was born on 8 June 1913, in Patterson Creek, Mineral, West Virginia, United States, his father, Edward St. Lawrence Gates, was 34 and his mother, Helen Gertrude Redman, was 31. Finding Your Roots debuted on PBS on March 25, 2012, and has now been running for nine seasons. When we left off, Gates was talking about his own DNA mix. Not sure which channel that is? And that imprinted this woman's story in my mind. executive producer (40 episodes, 2012-2023) Dyllan McGee . This sounds really obvious, but when youre comparing genealogists, make sure the genealogist offers family history books. It's incredible. Age, Biography and Wiki. GATES: Yeah, I was 15 years old. And he fought in - for the Continental Army. 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. Gates co-produces and hosts the genealogy show, "Finding Your Roots." We'd spit in a test tube. Listen 9:01. My great-great-grandfather's now been found. GATES: Well, the average African-American GATES: The average African-American is 24 percent European. *48.6% Sub-Saharan African. GROSS: It has been a great honor to speak with you. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. ", When the genealogist tells him he does indeed have Irish links, Gates says, "I find this oddly moving. And I think that we throw terms like that around too loosely. Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Watch: Ed Norton reacts to slave-owning ancestors in "Finding Your Roots". GATES: And then when they did my admixture, I'm 50 percent sub-Saharan African and 50 percent European and virtually no Native American ancestry, which really pisses my family off. GATES: Maybe for Christmas, OK, that's fine (laughter). **This blog post was updated on 6 April 2022**So, youve been watching the amazing stories about celebrities family histories on the TV show Finding Your Roots on PBS, and after a few episodes, youve started to wonder, Can Henry Louis Gates research my family tree?. 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. The blog walks you through how to evaluate a genealogists resume, potential red flags, and tips for where to find qualified professionals online. The conclusions wouldnt exist without research, citations, and analysis, but those structural underpinnings arent emphasized the way that they are in a research report. Jakes and Chris Tucker. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Family. There are no review sites like Yelp for genealogists, so it can be tough to know where to start. The fifth season of "Finding Your Roots" is currently showing on PBS. 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? 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. Gates has apologized for not being more transparent in handling a controversial episode of the series he hosts on PBS, Finding Your Roots. Off. 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." And we'd have the chess board set up. John Lithgow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are DNA cousins! They lived together. It comes from slavery. To be clear, I don't work for Finding Your Roots; I'm just a professional genealogist who knows people who have worked on the show and I was present for the filming of an episode. So it was just the two of us and my mom, right? July 23, 2009 / 7:43 AM / CBS. Unfortunately Gates failed in delivering on this, and instead left the . After living in Lexington, Mass., following the death of his wife, Mr. Gates had resided for the past several years at the. This is called an admixture test. GROSS: So when you had your DNA done, did you have a wish for a certain area of Africa or a certain group of African people who you wanted to be your ancestors? When I did Morgan Freeman's family tree, it was obvious through his DNA that he was descended from a white man who was an overseer on a plantation in Mississippi. pic.twitter.com/1fYFMj9eYC. Related Articles Around the Web. There we go. He looked white. And I learned a lot about the medium. He couldn't hear me, couldn't see me. But one story not told to most Irish elementary schoolchildren was of Niall's prolificacy. January 16, 2018. And the first thing they said was, you don't have any of the genes that's going to give you Alzheimer's. He co-wrote Lincoln on Race and Slavery, with Donald Yacovone (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009). Testing showed he had ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa, Ireland and England. 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. 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. And she's the cook for Claudette Colbert. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker . Henry Louis Gates is an American literary critic, historian, professor, filmmaker, and public intellectual. GATES: Now, we don't do blood anymore, right? In some states - like, New York would let them vote sometimes, and then take it away. If you don't tell your stories, other people will tell their story about you. I told them that I did not want to know if I had any of the sort of - I don't know - the slam-dunk genes for Alzheimer's disease. 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. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Published February 4, 2023 at 5:25 PM EST. Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy. Help me understand why this matters. I killed my mama. Carlos Figueroa. She paid cash for that house in what was largely a white neighborhood. supervising producer (32 episodes, 2014-2023) . Meryl Schumacker is Board-certified genealogist no. 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. And then they'll make their decision on when they're going to schedule the third season and if they're going to do a fourth season. Why are they so expensive? And my Y DNA, which is - comes in an unbroken chain, descends from this Irishman. It was just misdiagnosed. As the host of the hit show Finding Your Roots, now in its sixth season on PBS, he helps guests like Ava DuVernay, Sean . I mean, like, my - I'm second-generation American. The new season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. . We're listening to the interview Terry recorded with Harvard historian, author and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates before an audience at WHYY in Philadelphia last May. Henry Louis Gates is married to a white woman. 825 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, WNET is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Again, for privacy reasons, genealogists are precluded from disclosing their clients names and contact information. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. If youre looking for a family history book in particular, here are some extra things youll want to look for during your search: Think about what youre hoping to get from a book: Some books mainly emphasize the genealogists findings, while others juxtapose findings alongside extensive oral history and/or interviews with living family members. It's the damnedest thing I ever heard. The Finding Your Roots host said discoveries about families like Cox's is a welcome lesson. 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. GATES: And I gave it to my mother once. This kind of research has been especially important for African-Americans whose ancestors had their names and families taken away when they were enslaved. I love my mother, and I love my nickname. And it's just crazy. It's beautiful. You've been known to sing on the set of "Finding Your Roots.". His father worked in a paper mill and moonlighted as a janitor, while his mother cleaned houses, as described in his memoir Colored People (1994). This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Research reports are great! And you don't have a Y DNA, so that's why you're a woman. Preview E. Larry is joined by professor, historian, and host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots Henry Louis Gates Jr. Henry serves as a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. But it's just not those two genetic lines. The way to get a Finding Your Roots-style experience yourself is to hire a professional genealogist. GATES: admixture, I'm 50 percent sub-Saharan African and 50 percent European and virtually no Native American ancestry, which really pisses my family off. Henry Louis Gates, PBS, . A plaque was unveiled in Cambridge in honour of Crummell and two other black pioneers: Gloria Carpenter . . I hope you never come back, you know? He also wrote many non-fiction books on African American history, and won many awards in the process. 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. GROSS: Yeah. The latest episode of Finding Your Roots airs on Tuesday January 31, and features 76-year-old Scottish actor Brian Cox. But then President Obama called you both together. 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. 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? And before I started school - I started school when I was, well, 5, turning 6 - I would get dressed up, and I would go to church with my mom. Even if you were free and you were black GATES: In most states, you weren't allowed to vote. And we knew the name of his great-great-grandmother and the name of this white man. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. It may include images of records, text, a family tree chart, maps, and any number of other elements related to your family history (though some family history books contain very few images). And the obituary said, died this day in Cumberland, Md., January 6, 1888; Aunt Jane Gates, an estimable colored woman. GATES: I'll never - I love you, Mama. We'll hear more after a short break. One way of comparing research reports and family history books is to imagine a car: A research report is like the cars engine. JustWatch. Discover Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. 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. The Life Summary of Henry Louis. So, to summarize, you probably cant hire Henry Louis Gates Jr. himself, but you can get a similar work product from a qualified professional genealogist. 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. And he, and you, the officer and Joe Biden sat down, had a beer or two. A professional genealogist is the person who will build your family tree using records youre familiar with from the show, like censuses and vital records. GROSS: Your father died not too long ago - a few years ago. Copyright 2019 NPR. However, it is perfectly acceptable to ask to view some sample pages or images to give you an idea of what youre getting. 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. But you know what? And deep down, I realized in retrospect that my desire to make films was probably born about that time.

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