GROSS: I've interviewed many people over the years. We started to roll. GROSS: I saw his picture in the obituary. 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? Off. Except in the next scene, I showed him their headstones. My father loved sports, and I didn't care about sports that much. And I wanted to be from them. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests family histories himself. GROSS: And you got this information from the 1870 census. . James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. Lucy was the daughter of Lou Isaac Clifford and Elizabeth Jane Redman. He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. You might have prostate cancer that runs in your family. edit data. Yeah. And I was in the hospital for six weeks. And I want to start with the person who got you started in genealogy. Henry Louis Gates is an American literary critic, historian, professor, filmmaker, and public intellectual. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Again, for privacy reasons, genealogists are precluded from disclosing their clients names and contact information. The fifth season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. But mutations exist. Many thanks! Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born on 16 September, 1950 in Keyser, West Virginia, United States, is an American professor. And we'd have the chess board set up. 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. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. They know about their heritage.' His PBS series "Finding Your Roots" returns for its ninth season in January, and his latest documentary series . 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). But you know what? July 23, 2009 / 7:43 AM / CBS. And the reason I wanted to be a writer is that my mother wrote so beautifully and read so beautifully. Ahead of the latest episode on PBS, which features Brian Cox and Viola Davis, Gates Jr. sat down with Newsweek to discuss the origins of the show, and why it's superior to other ancestry shows on TV. - like the Bible says? GATES: I'll never - I love you, Mama. 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. 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." It was better to be free than be a slave, but you were free but not free. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. You know, no matter how different we appear phenotypically, under the skin we're 99.99 percent the same. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored 17 books and created 14 documentary films . He was a free negro, as we would have said then. Why are they so expensive? So I thought that I had a pretty good chance. It was during Winfrey's investigation that Gates Jr. discovered the potential of the show's format. And they fought in the Revolutionary War. He couldn't hear me, couldn't see me. 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? "A white man who slept with a black slave. It's incredible. Here to talk about the controversy is NPR TV critic, Eric Deggans. GATES: Well, the average African-American GATES: The average African-American is 24 percent European. Please try again. We're all admixed. They were buried next to each other. Even the Native Americans came from someplace else about 16,000 years ago. Where does your nickname Skip come from? ", Gates Jr. said he'd originally focused on Black guests as African and African American studies were his "brand as it were.". Isn't that a cool thing? Jeff Daniels sits with "Finding Your Roots" host Henry Louis Gates Jr. in an episode from Season 9 on PBS. Accuracy and availability may vary. And he, and you, the officer and Joe Biden sat down, had a beer or two. What percent would be from Europe? In 2009, when I did "Faces Of America," a retail value of full genomic sequencing was $300,000. The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. By Emily Guskin, Mahvish Shahid Khan and Amy Mitchell. And he mustered in in Winchester, Va., on Christmas Day, 1778, and was mustered down the Continental Army in April of 1784. And she come to - it's the woman who invents box pancake mix - right? 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 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. GROSS: OK. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. GROSS: It has been a great honor to speak with you. I'm Dave Davies This is FRESH AIR. One thing that your real-life book probably will not contain is photographs of your ancestors that youve never seen before. . And one of the, you know, wonderful people on "The View" said did I think that Donald Trump is racist. He is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Does race exist? Without the research, citations, and analysis in the report, conclusions are not possible. 1104, certified through 10 November 2023. guide for finding a professional genealogist. Henry Louis Gates Jr., 72, is a professor, historian and documentary filmmaker. I mean, like, my - I'm second-generation American. GROSS: And it was reported as if it was a break-in, and a police officer came and arrested you. The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. And they would be published in the newspaper. And then when we go - when you were buried, she would stand up. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. One, dated Saturday, January 7, 1888, was from the Cumberland Evening Times. More research time equals more discoveries, enabling the researchers to uncover those mind-blowing records fit for television. But when I started the series, it wasn't called "Finding Your Roots." 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. Coming up, journalist Brian Palmer talks about how slavery and the Civil War are described at Confederate historic sites in the South. I also cover the pros and cons of hiring an individual genealogist vs. a large company for your project, in case that interests you. 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). GATES: Don't you? And at the time, the airwaves were so segregated, they only put black films on "The Late Late Show." All that was on still in 1965 in syndication. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. Help me understand why this matters. I said, well, I've never met Donald Trump. You said that after - you had been getting death threats and these angry emails and everything. My momma called me Skippy from the time I was born. It's beautiful. The latest episode of Finding Your Roots airs on Tuesday January 31, and features 76-year-old Scottish actor Brian Cox. 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. His expertise and experience eventually led him to TV, where he started working as a contributor, narrator and host of a number of history shows, before he eventually worked on the PBS miniseries African American Lives. Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that he and John Lithgow are DNA cousins. Gates Jr. says since Moore joined the show, she has "changed fundamentally what was possible in terms of doing a person's family tree.". It doesn't exist. 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. 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 . Books can take a long time to produce, so make sure youre clear on the timeline and payment schedule. GATES: We know he was Irish from my DNA. You might have breast cancer. GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. 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: Well, I think that you should have the right to - you have to ask someone. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. And that is a long time. And my brother went off to dental school. It is the first known work of its kind and has great historical and literary significance. Gates accused the arresting officer, who is white, of . 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. 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. 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 . 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. He is an American professor, historian, filmmaker, and literary critic. GATES: I said, thank God. He married Pauline Augusta Coleman. 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. 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