GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. She loved nicknames (my brother Paul Edward is Rocky). Off. Related lists from IMDb users. A family history book is like the entire car. In the show, notable guests discover their family roots based on genealogical research and DNA results. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored 17 books and created 14 documentary films . If you enjoy genealogical research or history yourself and you want to take a peek at how the pros do it, you might actually enjoy a research report as much as (or more than!) It's a lot of data to process. We wanted to see what more we could tell Ben Affleck about the roots of his family's interest in social justice. (SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT'S "EGYPTIAN FANTASY"). 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. So to me, it leaves open a question of whether or not letting Affleck lobby Gates was the problem or having him actually pressure them and get them to change the material was the problem. He loved the news. And they stayed home, and they read. And at this point, I'd run over to my mother and say, Mama, I'll never pass for white, Mama. 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 that get tossed around when . They begin their conversation by discussing how Henry's upbringing and the . But mutations exist. And I have my mother's certificate from this vocational school where she learned to be a seamstress. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Update 1/31/23, 1:15 p.m. The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. If you hadnt already guessed, family history books tend to be expensive. It is also the name of Irish pubs all over the world. Age, Biography and Wiki. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. Strangely enough, he and the Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested him, Sgt. So everybody who showed up on this continent is from someplace else. And they fought in the Revolutionary War. So I'm out there. And at the time, the airwaves were so segregated, they only put black films on "The Late Late Show." It was just misdiagnosed. It's a gift - and for my mom. And then he'd - and I read quite a lot. You know, we used to say tribe, but now that's not politically correct - so the Yoruba ethnic group in Western Nigeria. S9 E2 - 52m 11s. GATES: Yeah, I loved books. What percent would be Native American? My great-great-grandfather's now been found. As you can imagine, there's a bit of you get what you pay for here, with the most expensive books being the most customized (although there are some grifters out there, which I explain how to spot below). 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. GROSS: I think they're doing it through records and not through, like, secretly getting their blood samples. But you know what? Who is Henry Louis Gates Jr. married to? 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. "What's really changed our series and distinguishes it from Who Do You Think You Are? That indicates that they do them regularly, which is a positive sign. 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. They lived together. DAVIES: Henry Louis Gates speaking with Terry Gross in May of last year. He married Pauline Augusta Coleman. PBS says it's now delaying the airing of new episodes until it can improve editorial oversight. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". GROSS: Yeah. 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. The Finding Your Roots host said discoveries about families like Cox's is a welcome lesson. It's important that we nurture and protect these memories. You get your Y DNA from your father, and that's what makes me a man. GATES: Don't you? . I'm Dave Davies, in for Terry Gross. GROSS: Do you know - do you want to know your medical DNA? And then it was a property requirement. Discover Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. . CORNISH: Finally Eric, help me out here. PBS. He has chaired Harvard University's department of Afro-American Studies for many years. And when they analyzed my mitochondrial DNA, it went to England. And we filmed the whole thing. After living in Lexington, Mass., following the death of his wife, Mr. Gates had resided for the past several years at the. GROSS: You had family that passed for white. GROSS: But it's making me think of how much death figured into your formative thoughts - the death of your grandfather, which led you to see the picture of your great-great-grandmother, everybody's deaths through your mother memorialized in those obituaries. Henry Louis Gates. GATES: I said, thank God. But on the other hand, Terry, there were a lot of people who never forgave the country for electing a black man to the White House. And on my desk set a red Webster's dictionary. 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). After that, everything stopped. She was smart and she went to college, which was unusual for a woman in that era. Please try again. - Part 01 HD Watch. Does race exist? GROSS: There's some people who are trying to use genealogy to out people who are white supremacists and say, oh, you think you're so pure white, that that's such a big deal? GROSS: So I want to squeeze in one more question. 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 . The story of Niall of the Nine Hostages is already the stuff of legend, which has been passed on to countless Irish schoolchildren over the years. I'm here to find my roots. 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. What is race? References are not super common in this business due to privacy. Variety has an exclusive first look at Gates' appearance; scroll down for [] Now she was born in 1819; died in 1888. His dynasty lasted for centuries, continuing up until the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland at the end of the 16th century. It was better to be free than be a slave, but you were free but not free. You should also have an opportunity to view a proof of the book before printing. And I showed up from Yale, and he became my mentor. Affleck himself posted an apology on Facebook, saying that he'd talked to Gates about these changes, but the process was, quote, "collaborative." Henry Louis Gates Jr. addressing a class at Harvard in 1996. . In my experience, cousins are usually more receptive to requests for pictures from known family members (as opposed to friendly but unfamiliar genealogists). And I loved the news. Woodson was "keenly aware of the role of politics in the classroom," said Gates . The headline read " DEATH OF 'AUNT JANE GATES ' ": Last night at 11 o'clock "Aunt Jane Gates," colored, a . Some books have a lot of pictures, while others have zero or very few images. So we knew he was Irish. Gates Jr. continued, "Brian, you know, broke down in tears because his grandfather was his hero. 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. "I'm descended from a white man, he says. It comes from slavery. And then when we go - when you were buried, she would stand up. Copyright 2015 NPR. Copyright 2019 NPR. 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. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Kids don't even know what they are anymore, but everybody here does. And the last thing I did before I went to bed on July 2, 1960, was to look up the word estimable. I said, well, I've never met Donald Trump. 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. (Well cover how to hire a genealogist later in this blog post.). If youd like to get an idea about what its like working with a particular genealogist, read their testimonials or reviews. GATES: And I gave it to my mother once. 2023 WNET. So I want to read something that you wrote about her. Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that he and John Lithgow are DNA cousins. Henry Louis Gate was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, W.Va. And so he introduced me to the Yoruba people. We wanted to see what more we could tell Ben Affleck about the roots of his family's interest in social justice. GATES: They don't do that anymore for this particular kind of - I had a broken hip. Henry Louis Gates. DEGGANS: Yeah, that's true. But maybe youre thinking, But Im not here for a research report. They had two geneticists. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Dr. Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. Every reveal [on Finding Your Roots] is another chapter in world history. We started to roll. 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. GATES: And my father lived to be 97 1/2 without any dementia. But I think that you should have to get permission before someone is creeping around in your DNA. Greg Moore, Arizona Republic. And it's just crazy. And she would stand up and read their obituary, their eulogy. There are similar shows on TV, but the host knows why his is a cut above the rest. Not sure which channel that is? This is called an admixture test. And she dies of a broken heart because her little girl passes for white and goes off - and never sees her again. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. And I watched reruns of early black films like "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah." 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. And my mother used to write the eulogies, the obituaries for all the black people in the Potomac Valley, where I grew up. And I couldn't imagine what, but two sets of those fourth great-grandparents are from my mother's line. So you're saying I should have been an undertaker. You might have prostate cancer that runs in your family. Birth of Henry Louis Gates, Sr. I found the first edition when I was an adult. The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. By Emily Guskin, Mahvish Shahid Khan and Amy Mitchell. Gates is the host of the TV genealogy series "Finding Your Roots." 1104, certified through 10 November 2023. guide for finding a professional genealogist. So obviously rape or, at best, cajoled sexuality was the cause, but there are exceptions. 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. GATES: Our TV - when we woke up, the TV was on, and nobody ever turned it off until you went to sleep. What do you think of that? 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. He is well-known as a literary critic, an editor of literature, and a proponent of black literature and black cultural studies. Gates co-produces and hosts the genealogy show, "Finding Your Roots." Historian and African American Studies professor Gates Jr. has hosted a number of genealogy shows in the past, but Finding Your Roots on PBS has proved his most popular yet. We'll hear more after a short break. Genealogy for Henry Louis Gates, Sr. (1913 - 2010) family tree on Geni, with over 240 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Two men at the center of the controversy are linked by their Irish heritage. 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. So everybody knew that this whole thing was building to the climax when Delilah - is her name - the character. Author, Journalist, Industrialist, Businessman, American filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Born on September 16, 1950 They want to see how that pans out as they do the show. 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. Gates attended Yale University and the University of Cambridge. 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. 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. This is FRESH AIR. GATES: Oh, my father and I were the first father and son of any race and the first African-Americans fully sequenced. 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. If we apply those percentages to the last . This warlord was responsible for the very common Irish surname "O'Neill" -- which means "descendant son of Niall." And when this little girl's passing for - she passes for white and breaks her mother's heart. 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 they have a horse-drawn carriage. 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. The controversy centered on an episode about the family history of star Ben Affleck. The Life Summary of Henry Louis. All Rights Reserved. GATES: I'll never - I love you, Mama. So it was just the two of us and my mom, right? Was this an equal sexual relationship? Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr S01 - Ep02 Mayor Cory Booker - Rep. John Lewis. Africa's Great Civilizations | show | 2017 | Official Trailer. But when I started the series, it wasn't called "Finding Your Roots." Race is a social construction. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. 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. (If youre interested in a research report, you can hop over to my guide about how to hire a professional genealogist.). In the latest episode of Finding Your Roots, Cox discovers previously lost information about James McCann, his grandfather who died before he was born, and his military service for Great Britain in World War I. So PBS started an internal investigation to figure out what happened, and then on Wednesday they issued their findings. That the emotional apex would not be around them discovering where in Africa their mother's mother's line came from. Gates has been awarded many titles, such as Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, to name a few. GROSS: Huge story. And you - the last scene is the funeral. James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. Yeah. Nobody knows about their heritage, and that's been the biggest surprise.". And I would watch this beautiful, brilliant goddess. The minister would call on her. And that is the lesson of "Finding Your Roots. GATES: For which she paid cash. He looked white. 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. His name was John Redman. And the first thing they said was, you don't have any of the genes that's going to give you Alzheimer's. supervising producer (32 episodes, 2014-2023) . GROSS: Totally stunned. Im looking for a Book of Life., Questlove called his Book of Life, The best book I ever read in my life.. And there were a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump as a repudiation vote. He was a free negro, as we would have said then. She was quite a lady. (Preston Crawley) "I love being in Utah because I love genealogy," Henry Louis Gates Jr. said as he addressed BYU . And my grandfather was so white, we called him Casper behind his back. It's called the Beer Summit. And he fought in - for the Continental Army. As the host of the hit show Finding Your Roots, now in its sixth season on PBS, he helps guests like Ava DuVernay, Sean . The genealogist should walk you through the research process. The tale, as I later discovered, is a tangled one. GATES: But everyone who's in one of those databases has given some kind of permission. GATES: But I have an announcement to make GATES: For you. GROSS: So you know your medical background and if you're GATES: Yeah. GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. You know, I try to - doing "Finding Your Roots" is a way to paying homage to my mother and father every year. Of course, you can do that through mitochondrial DNA," he told Newsweek. When I became a teenager, my father and I bonded. So you GATES: Because of this white man. You know, no matter how different we appear phenotypically, under the skin we're 99.99 percent the same. The video will be available shortly. Said gates '' he told Newsweek we called him Casper behind his.! College, which was unusual for a woman in that era her 's! On an episode about the Roots of his family 's interest in social justice you... 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