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. And then black people would tell each other - they would say, you know, be sure to watch "The Late Late Show" tonight because "Imitation Of Life," which is my favorite film - 1934, with Claudette Colbert. So the two men who took part in what is now an infamous confrontation outside the Gates home near Harvard this month are actually related through common Irish lineage -- one of the more extraordinary aspects of the incident that has sparked worldwide headlines. And that is the strongest argument for brotherhood, sisterhood and the unity of the human species. 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? But then President Obama called you both together. We're all admixed. We'd spit in a test tube. All that was on still in 1965 in syndication. 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 I watched reruns of early black films like "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah." GATES: Now, we don't do blood anymore, right? 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? I said, well, I've never met Donald Trump. So I would say, you know, no, I don't think so. It was during Winfrey's investigation that Gates Jr. discovered the potential of the show's format. DEGGANS: Well, I'm not really sure. He couldn't hear me, couldn't see me. 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. GATES: And because it was PBS, we negotiated a deal with this company Illumina which sequences everybody. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". Remember all the talk about post-racialism that GATES: We thought when Obama - we had turned a corner, and we could, you know, beat our - the plowshares into pruning hooks - right? You can read more about genealogists specialties in my blog post on the subject. 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: Don't you? GATES: Yeah, I was 15 years old. Coming up, journalist Brian Palmer talks about how slavery and the Civil War are described at Confederate historic sites in the South. GATES: Terry Gross speechless - first time in 35 years. I can do it. 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. Henry Louis Gates, (born Sept. 16, 1950, Keyser, W.Va., U.S.), U.S. critic and scholar. 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? CORNISH: That's NPR's TV critic, Eric Deggans. 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). Why book banning is back in 2022 - Vox . And when they analyzed my mitochondrial DNA, it went to England. DEGGANS: Well, PBS has insisted on some changes. It's beautiful. I think you know where I'm heading here. GROSS: Huge story. If you hadnt already guessed, family history books tend to be expensive. I love you being black. Gates accused the arresting officer, who is white, of . - Part 01 HD Watch. Henry Louis Gates Jr. addressing a class at Harvard in 1996. . And then he'd - and I read quite a lot. And our family - my cousin, Johnny Gates (ph), still owns that house to this day. So everybody knew that this whole thing was building to the climax when Delilah - is her name - the character. Published February 4, 2023 at 5:25 PM EST. I had no idea, no preparation. That slave would later escape, and go to become Ireland's patron saint, St. Patrick. You get your Y DNA from your father, and that's what makes me a man. And we know from the analysis of my DNA that goes back to Ireland. You know, we used to say tribe, but now that's not politically correct - so the Yoruba ethnic group in Western Nigeria. And that is the lesson of "Finding Your Roots. GATES: I'll never - I love you, Mama. GROSS: I've interviewed many people over the years. Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that he and John Lithgow are DNA cousins. Gates co-produces and hosts the genealogy show, "Finding Your Roots." JustWatch. And that is a long time. Accuracy and availability may vary. Millions of Irish Americans, especially those in New York, may be directly descended, like Gates, from Niall of the Nine Hostages, the most prolific warrior in Irish history. Accuracy and availability may vary. So we knew he was Irish. I could've won the Nobel Prize, and somebody would say congratulations. Maria Hinojosa's Great-Great-Grandfather Was a Railway CEO. But it's just not those two genetic lines. GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. Discover Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. James Crowley, both trace their ancestry back to the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. Abby Wolf (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2012), a collection of three decades of his work, was published in 2012. GATES: That's true. Listen to National Gallery of Art panel discussions featuring Image of the Black series editors David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as well as HUP editor Sharmila Sen: Part I | Part II | Part III; In conjunction with Harvard's Du Bois Institute, The Root hosted an "Image of the Week" series featuring art from the Image of the Black archive. I'm learning about things I didn't know anything about like Scotland, and the Black Watch, and the Royal Highlanders [a Scottish regiment].". . And she dies of a broken heart because her little girl passes for white and goes off - and never sees her again. 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. Jakes and Chris Tucker. In front of all these people and all these viewers. He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 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. Why are they so expensive? Some people get really excited about what goes on under the hood, but some peoples eyes glaze over a bit. It would be rather seeing restored the names of their enslaved ancestors." GATES: Right after the Beer Summit, it all went away. If youve enjoyed this blog post, you can hire me to create your family history book or research report. Carlos Figueroa. This kind of research has been especially important for African-Americans whose ancestors had their names and families taken away when they were enslaved. You should also have an opportunity to view a proof of the book before printing. 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." So I thought that I had a pretty good chance. This is called an admixture test. And my grandfather was so white, we called him Casper behind his back. - like the Bible says? Woodson was "keenly aware of the role of politics in the classroom," said Gates . 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? And the last thing I did before I went to bed on July 2, 1960, was to look up the word estimable. 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. Nobody knows about their heritage, and that's been the biggest surprise.". They lived together. 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. His PBS series "Finding Your Roots" returns for its ninth season in January, and his latest documentary series . January 16, 2018. As I mentioned before, be sure to inquire about digital options, if that is a priority for you. 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. 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. Terry spoke to Henry Louis Gates in front of an audience last May when he was in Philadelphia to receive WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award. "It was so popular that PBS said, 'nah, you gotta cut white people in on this,'" Gates Jr. laughed. Gates is one of many famous African-Americans with Irish heritage, including President Barack Obama and award-winning author Alice Walker. Gates attended Yale University and the University of Cambridge. That indicates that they do them regularly, which is a positive sign. In Georgia and Alabama the number is about 9 percent. GATES: I said, thank God. GATES: But I have an announcement to make GATES: For you. **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?. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. GATES: Oh, my father and I were the first father and son of any race and the first African-Americans fully sequenced. Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. GROSS: So I want to squeeze in one more question. DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. She loved nicknames (my brother Paul Edward is Rocky). My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. So you found out that your ancestors were, like, 18 miles away from where you lived. supervising producer (32 episodes, 2014-2023) . Surprise photographs dont happen very often with genealogical research because, back in the day, photography wasnt used to identify people in government documents. And when this little girl's passing for - she passes for white and breaks her mother's heart. And my father would just make up stories and tell my brother and me. Thank God. . You've been known to sing on the set of "Finding Your Roots.". Was this an equal sexual relationship? 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 they have a horse-drawn carriage. And I gave it to her for birthday. I love you. And so then they came in - this is a big deal back in 2008. War, Thinking, Civilization. I hope you never come back, you know? In a PBS series on African-American ancestry that he hosted in 2008, Gates discovered his Irish roots when he found he was descended from an Irish immigrant and a slave girl. So it was just the two of us and my mom, right? CORNISH: Meanwhile, the program "Finding Your Roots," what's been the fallout for the show? 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. And it's just crazy. Not all genealogists do, so youll want to look for someone who has books listed in their services. July 23, 2009 / 7:43 AM / CBS. GROSS: OK, for two weeks. Finding the right genealogist for your projectmaking sure they are qualified, signing a contract, etccan be a confusing task, even if you have been researching your tree for awhile. 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. Well, I'll tell you a funny story. After Ben Affleck Scandal, PBS Postpones 'Finding Your Roots'. Related topic Henry Louis Gates Jr. Related topic. The companion book to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s PBS series, And Still I Risea timeline and chronicle of the past fifty years of black history in the U.S. in more than 350 photos. And I was shocked by that. Members get extended access to PBS video on demand and more. Gates Jr. continued, "Brian, you know, broke down in tears because his grandfather was his hero. So I'm telling this story over and over of my - of rediscovering my own lost roots. In 2009, when I did "Faces Of America," a retail value of full genomic sequencing was $300,000. And they fought in the Revolutionary War. You know, and your family was, one of them anyways, was in the Revolutionary War. 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 . If you have an ancestor that you are particularly interested in, its a good idea to let your genealogist know. She was quite a lady. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests family histories himself. When I became a teenager, my father and I bonded. edit data. So I'm out there. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Dr. Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. More research time equals more discoveries, enabling the researchers to uncover those mind-blowing records fit for television. 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