And I couldn't imagine what, but two sets of those fourth great-grandparents are from my mother's line. GATES: For which she paid cash. 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. And it's for my father. Two men at the center of the controversy are linked by their Irish heritage. 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 . After more than 500 years of skewed, racist, Euro-centric interpretations of African history and culture, Wonders of the African World with Henry Loius Gates Jr. was to be a bold step towards reclaiming the oft-overlooked and minimized splendor of African civilization. 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. They flew him in from San Francisco. GROSS: Yeah. There is also the question of What is exhaustive? when it comes to family tree research. ", When the genealogist tells him he does indeed have Irish links, Gates says, "I find this oddly moving. You may yet have your own Bernie Sanders-style moment of genealogy-fueled surprise in the near future (though I cant say whether itll be because youre related to Larry David). His PBS series "Finding Your Roots" returns for its ninth season in January, and his latest documentary series . If my areas of expertise do not align with your needs, check out my guide for finding a professional genealogist. 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. 2. Related Articles Around the Web. Writing samples might range from blog posts to published research in peer-reviewed journals. Ironically, James Crowley, whose name in Gaelic means "hardy warrior," is also descended from the same line as Gates, having very close links to Niall of the Nine Hostages. And I learned a lot about the medium. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. And under the skin, we are almost identical genetically. 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. 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 I was shocked by that. GATES: I go, yeah, I got a brother who's a dentist, you know? So PBS started an internal investigation to figure out what happened, and then on Wednesday they issued their findings. The Life Summary of Henry Louis. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests family histories himself. 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. Well talk with Gates about the process of finding . Dozens of your favorite THIRTEEN and PBS programs are available to watch on-demand on many popular platforms. It comes from slavery. 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: 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. The headline read " DEATH OF 'AUNT JANE GATES ' ": Last night at 11 o'clock "Aunt Jane Gates," colored, a . It's beautiful. Update 1/31/23, 1:15 p.m. 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. GROSS: It's mind-boggling. And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. Not all genealogists do, so youll want to look for someone who has books listed in their services. 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 go, goodbye. He was 97, as you said. Black people came here - not willingly, of course. 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. And I think that that's sad. John Lithgow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are DNA cousins! 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 is also the name of Irish pubs all over the world. GATES: Yeah, yeah. 1. Maria Hinojosa's Great-Great-Grandfather Was a Railway CEO. 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. Barack Obama understood that and, I think, certainly helped our nation to heal. As host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Gates tells celebrities about their family history. "My wife, Marial Iglesias Utset, is a Cuban citizen and a historian of slavery and the slave trade to Cuba," he explained. 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. Related Links. When I became a teenager, my father and I bonded. BEN AFFLECK: That's my grandmother, Liz. We started to roll. Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy. The blog walks you through how to evaluate a genealogists resume, potential red flags, and tips for where to find qualified professionals online. Gates Jr. continued, "Brian, you know, broke down in tears because his grandfather was his hero. GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. GATES: Maybe for Christmas, OK, that's fine (laughter). Like I said earlier, family history books can vary widely from one genealogist to the next. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates has apologized after PBS found he violated their editorial standards. I only did black people. The fifth season of "Finding Your Roots" is currently showing on PBS. It's a horrible way to start, in a way. The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 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? The fifth season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. His dynasty lasted for centuries, continuing up until the Elizabethan conquest of Ireland at the end of the 16th century. You get your Y DNA from your father, and that's what makes me a man. There he found that he shared 10 of the 11 DNA matches with offspring of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the fourth century warlord who created one of the dominant strains of Irish genealogy because he had so many offspring. I asked a PBS representative that question many times, and she would only repeat back the language that's from this statement. Guests from all ethnic backgrounds are welcomed as Gates Jr. investigates the lineage of his celebrity guests. This is FRESH AIR. It's a lot of data to process. Armstrong Williams, a person I really admire and like, I ask him, and he said absolutely not. That indicates that they do them regularly, which is a positive sign. I regret we are out of time. And she invents this pancake mix, and they become fabulously wealthy. So I'm telling this story over and over of my - of rediscovering my own lost roots. Henry Louis Gates, (born Sept. 16, 1950, Keyser, W.Va., U.S.), U.S. critic and scholar. So it was just the two of us and my mom, right? Henry Louis Gates, Jr., (born September 16, 1950, Keyser, West Virginia, U.S.), American literary critic and scholar known for his pioneering theories of African and African American literature. War, Thinking, Civilization. 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. After a break, he'll talk about his childhood and about how DNA evidence demonstrates there's no such thing as racial purity. 1913 June 8, 1913. I think you know where I'm heading here. 44 Copy quote. Some genealogists also offer hardbound or digital family history books, which are probably what youre after, if youre reading this blog post. CLIP. And we filmed the whole thing. Listen 9:01. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Henry serves as a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. supervising producer (32 episodes, 2014-2023) . He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. GATES: Now, we don't do blood anymore, right? Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a Professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard University and Director of the W. E. B. 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. 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). And your father was a tailor, which is why we GATES: And my mother went to Atlantic City. And she and Claudette Colbert are both unmarried mothers. And while youre at it, think about moving those pictures to dry, acid-free storage above-groundyour descendants will thank you! 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. And we have a wall of degrees at home. It was just put on the historic GATES: Register in Maryland. But mutations exist. Then he'd come back. Professor Henry Louis 'Skip' Gates Jr AP. The short answer is that genealogical research is charged by the hour, and research like that on Finding Your Roots takes a lot of hours. And consequently, you are now a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. Now she was born in 1819; died in 1888. We have a genius, genetic genealogist, one of the pioneers of the field in CeCe Moore." Strangely enough, he and the Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested him, Sgt. This is FRESH AIR. You know, and your family was, one of them anyways, was in the Revolutionary War. 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? His name was John Redman. GROSS: Yeah. 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 it turned out - my father used to say, you know, your mother's family is really distinguished, too? GATES: Well, I think that you should have the right to - you have to ask someone. In a real book from a genealogist, context like that provided by Mr. Gates on the show would be written down, so that you could read the book yourself without needing an interpreter to explain things. Carlos Figueroa. July 23, 2009 / 7:43 AM / CBS. Preview E. Larry is joined by professor, historian, and host of the PBS series Finding Your Roots Henry Louis Gates Jr. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Discover Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. They had kids, and they're buried next to each other. Or they stayed home, and they drew. DEGGANS: Well, I'm not really sure. And there were a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump as a repudiation vote. Username and password are case sensitive. After that, everything stopped. 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. Gates has been awarded many titles, such as Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, to name a few. Some books have a lot of pictures, while others have zero or very few images. He also wrote many non-fiction books on African American history, and won many awards in the process. 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. And the title is Race Is A Social Construction, But Mutations Are Real" (ph). Yeah. 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 she throws herself on the casket. PBS. The tale, as I later discovered, is a tangled one. And my Y DNA, which is - comes in an unbroken chain, descends from this Irishman. GROSS: But you also wanted to know who were your African ancestors. Greg Moore, Arizona Republic. 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. And he'd make a couple - a move. GATES: We know he was Irish from my DNA. 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. GROSS: Do you know - do you want to know your medical DNA? 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. And our family - my cousin, Johnny Gates (ph), still owns that house to this day. It was really, like, the photograph of her - of your great-great-aunt Jane Gates. What percent would be Native American? When we left off, Gates was talking about his own DNA mix. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, . They could probably find it out themselves. That's the way it is. And the average African-American has less than 1 percent Native American ancestry, but they have 24 percent European ancestry. All rights reserved. After another successful round with African American Lives 2, with Chris Rock, Morgan Freeman, Maya Angelou and more, Gates Jr. was given an instruction by PBS. The new season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. GATES: So if you were a Martian and came down to look at my DNA results, you'd think I was a white boy, you know? I could've won the Nobel Prize, and somebody would say congratulations. Henry Louis Gates Jr. . Be sure to watch Finding Your Roots on PBS on Tuesday nights! 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: So I want to squeeze in one more question. 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 Copyright 2019 NPR. And when my grandparents came as immigrants, my family was able to assimilate pretty easily because we're white. Henry Louis Gates Jr., 72, is a professor, historian and documentary filmmaker. GATES: So obviously somebody gave her that money. And I showed up from Yale, and he became my mentor. GROSS: And I read you talking about this. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". GATES: But everyone who's in one of those databases has given some kind of permission. He introduced the notion of signifyin' to represent African and African American literary and musical history as a continuing reflection and reinterpretation of what has come before. They want to see how that pans out as they do the show. Watching a list of 26 titles created 26 Jan 2019 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. I mean, like, my - I'm second-generation American. TERRY GROSS, BYLINE: Because you've talked to everybody about their genealogy, I want to talk with you about yours and what you've learned about yourself and the larger meaning of what you've learned about yourself. Help me understand why this matters. Books can take a long time to produce, so make sure youre clear on the timeline and payment schedule. I mean, you're looking at, like, fancy celebrities talk about their backgrounds. Henry Louis Gates Jr. 0:30. 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. This warlord was responsible for the very common Irish surname "O'Neill" -- which means "descendant son of Niall." And GATES: Yeah. 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 . So I just wrote an essay that was published by Yale University Press about race. 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. Except in the next scene, I showed him their headstones. 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. GATES: That's true. 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? She was quite a lady. "And I go, 'What? 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. GROSS: So you know your medical background and if you're GATES: Yeah. (SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FINDING YOUR ROOTS"). This is . GATES: And my father lived to be 97 1/2 without any dementia. GATES: Yeah, I loved books. 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. And the only reason that I started making the series that became "Finding Your Roots" is because of that obituary and that photograph. So we went - my father showed us that picture and that obituary, and we went home. 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 . We know that BRCA1, BRCA2 - they're genetic. That's how much the science of genetics has changed in terms of the retail market since 2009. My momma called me Skippy from the time I was born. Students pose with Henry Louis Gates Jr. following Tuesday, Nov. 19's forum. So lets look at some numbers! Again, for privacy reasons, genealogists are precluded from disclosing their clients names and contact information. well-spoken characters in his father's tales actually existed and were related to him." view all Henry Louis Gates, Sr.'s Timeline. Existence means change. 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. And when this little girl's passing for - she passes for white and breaks her mother's heart. pic.twitter.com/1fYFMj9eYC. 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. You were 9 years old when you found her picture. Legend has it that it was Niall of the Nine Hostages who, on a raid in Wales, captured a young slave and brought him to Ireland. I mean, they know Donald Trump. Henry Louis Gates Jr. told CBS News that marking Juneteenth as a federal holiday was a long time coming.#cbsnews #juneteenth CBS News Streaming Network is th. And that is the lesson of "Finding Your Roots. And she come to - it's the woman who invents box pancake mix - right? If so, youre in luck! 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. But this week, Gates's wish came true. edit data. In 2009, when I did "Faces Of America," a retail value of full genomic sequencing was $300,000. The genealogist should walk you through the research process. Every reveal [on Finding Your Roots] is another chapter in world history.
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