GROSS: Thank you for all of all of the things you've written for your TV shows, for your movies. Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy. And by in traction, I mean on my back with my foot up with weights. 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. OK. 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. What percent would be Native American? Africa's Great Civilizations | show | 2017 | Official Trailer. So where does that come from? ET: The headline on this article was updated for further clarity around Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s remarks. Race is a social construction. Or they stayed home, and they listened to or played music. Im looking for a Book of Life., Questlove called his Book of Life, The best book I ever read in my life.. 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. . NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. GROSS: When you were 14, you had a football injury. And I don't think that he understands how much power that - to heal, to bind that the Oval Office metaphorically has. His mother cleaned . He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 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? He is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. And I couldn't imagine what, but two sets of those fourth great-grandparents are from my mother's line. The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. By Emily Guskin, Mahvish Shahid Khan and Amy Mitchell. But I think that Donald Trump's rhetoric and some of his actions - for instance, after Charlottesville - encourage unfavorable race relations in the United States. By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Dr. Gates is the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard. But you know what? Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. They know about their heritage.' The supposedly fearless leader battled the English, the Scots, the French and even the Romans, and struck fear into the heart of his enemies. 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. It's beautiful. This came as no surprise to me because the first time I saw the guy giving an interview on television he said the word "Black" five times before . I know, those are some of my favorite reveals on the show, too. DEGGANS: Well, I'm not really sure. I mean, they know Donald Trump. And the DNA tests we were doing at that time - when they analyzed my Y DNA, it went to Ireland. They want to see how that pans out as they do the show. This is called an admixture test. This is FRESH AIR. Even the Native Americans came from someplace else about 16,000 years ago. GATES: No. #FindingYourRoots#FindingYourRoots airs Tuesdays. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Gates Jr. added, "Oprah just broke down and cried in the middle of the shoot. And so then they came in - this is a big deal back in 2008. GROSS: So you assume it was not a consensual relationship, but she managed to own her own home five years after being freed from slavery. I think you know where I'm heading here. And the title is Race Is A Social Construction, But Mutations Are Real" (ph). I mean, you're looking at, like, fancy celebrities talk about their backgrounds. Thank you for being you. I'm learning about things I didn't know anything about like Scotland, and the Black Watch, and the Royal Highlanders [a Scottish regiment].". Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born on 16 September, 1950 in Keyser, West Virginia, United States, is an American professor. Memories, Mean, People. So you're saying I should have been an undertaker. 44 Copy quote. (Preston Crawley) "I love being in Utah because I love genealogy," Henry Louis Gates Jr. said as he addressed BYU . Henry serves as a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Henry Louis Gates Jr., 72, is a professor, historian and documentary filmmaker. 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. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? Gates co-produces and hosts the genealogy show, "Finding Your Roots." Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has published numerous books and produced and . And while youre at it, think about moving those pictures to dry, acid-free storage above-groundyour descendants will thank you! Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Existence means change. Would you do it? And when this little girl's passing for - she passes for white and breaks her mother's heart. "What's really changed our series and distinguishes it from Who Do You Think You Are? Does race exist? My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. Accuracy and availability may vary. It's the damnedest thing I ever heard. So PBS started an internal investigation to figure out what happened, and then on Wednesday they issued their findings. GROSS: And it's a way of outing people as not being who they think they are and not recognizing that we're all descended from so many different people. Where does your nickname Skip come from? in England and in the U.S. is the use of DNA. 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? Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters, Watch: Ed Norton reacts to slave-owning ancestors in "Finding Your Roots". And she was a beautiful woman. Henry Louis Gates, (born Sept. 16, 1950, Keyser, W.Va., U.S.), U.S. critic and scholar. GATES: That was one of the happiest days of my life when my brother went to dental school. 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. And that imprinted this woman's story in my mind. GATES: And my father lived to be 97 1/2 without any dementia. 'The Simpsons' Brings Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s 'Finding Your Roots' to Springfield (EXCLUSIVE) Variety - Michael Schneider 2d There have been a lot of TV crossover episodes over the years, but this may be the most unique one yet: PBS' "Finding Your Roots" and host Dr. Henry Thank God. And your driver was helping you - well, he was shoving his shoulder against the door trying to open it. Nobody knows about their heritage, and that's been the biggest surprise.". 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). Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals that he and John Lithgow are DNA cousins. GATES: And we - they only put - remember "The Late Show"? DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. Genealogy for Henry Louis Gates, Sr. (1913 - 2010) family tree on Geni, with over 240 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. But one story not told to most Irish elementary schoolchildren was of Niall's prolificacy. 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 they have a horse-drawn carriage. "I've been in school since August 31 1956, when I started first grade, I've never left school," Gates Jr. said. More research time equals more discoveries, enabling the researchers to uncover those mind-blowing records fit for television. Henry Louis Gates is married to a white woman. The new season of Gates' TV series "Finding Your Roots" is now running on PBS. But we have a disproportionately higher risk of sickle cell. GROSS: OK, for two weeks. There is also the question of What is exhaustive? when it comes to family tree research. Well talk with Gates about the process of finding . Well, I'll tell you a funny story. The Life Summary of Henry Louis. He was a free negro, as we would have said then. We have a genius, genetic genealogist, one of the pioneers of the field in CeCe Moore." Not all genealogists do, so youll want to look for someone who has books listed in their services. It is also the name of Irish pubs all over the world. Some books have a lot of pictures, while others have zero or very few images. You can say on the one hand that race is a social construction. GATES: Yeah, I loved books. But it's just not those two genetic lines. The tale, as I later discovered, is a tangled one. But just in case youre not, there are other ways to get the Finding Your Roots experience off-screen. He rediscovered the earliest African-American novels . Furthermore, he is credited for 14 documentaries, and some of the most noted ones are: let the church say, Amen, Africa's great civilization, and many more. That's the way it is. And at this point, I'd run over to my mother and say, Mama, I'll never pass for white, Mama. African-Americans all think that they're a descendant from a Native American. But then President Obama called you both together. GATES: And, you know, what's even more amazing, it's - one, it was my mother's third great grandfather - my fourth great grandfather. - like the Aunt Jemima figure. 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. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. Then he'd come back. Research reports are great! My father loved sports, and I didn't care about sports that much. Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an author, documentary filmmaker, essayist, and literary critic. He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. He is the host of the PBS television series "Finding Your . GROSS: So I want to squeeze in one more question. And he fought in - for the Continental Army. And the black woman says all she wants is enough money to have a New Orleans-type funeral. He has chaired Harvard University's department of Afro-American Studies for many years. You might have prostate cancer that runs in your family. Variety has an exclusive first look at Gates' appearance; scroll down for [] "My idea was that I would reveal where in Africa, on a guest mother's mother's line, they had hailed from. 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 . GROSS: And I read you talking about this. And at the time, the airwaves were so segregated, they only put black films on "The Late Late Show." He co-wrote Lincoln on Race and Slavery, with Donald Yacovone (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009). I'm going to be black. You can find your local PBS station here. "duet by kimberely freeman" Henry Louis Gates Jr. 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. Gates is one of many famous African-Americans with Irish heritage, including President Barack Obama and award-winning author Alice Walker. 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. (PBS, 2019), and the related books, Dark Sky Rising: Reconstruction and the Dawn of Jim Crow, with Tonya Bolden (Scholastic, 2019), and Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White . 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. GROSS: Your father died not too long ago - a few years ago. They spoke in front of an audience last May when Gates received WHYY's annual Lifelong Learning Award. And my mother used to write the eulogies, the obituaries for all the black people in the Potomac Valley, where I grew up. Henry Louis Gates Jr. hosts the program, butas I understand ithe does not do the research into the guests' family histories himself. DEGGANS: Yeah, that's true. 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. This kind of research has been especially important for African-Americans whose ancestors had their names and families taken away when they were enslaved. GATES: The Gateses all looked - my father looked white. Biology matters. She loved nicknames (my brother Paul Edward is Rocky). 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. There have been a lot of TV crossover episodes over the years, but this may be the most unique one yet: PBS' "Finding Your Roots" and host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. will make a major appearance on Fox's "The Simpsons" this Sunday. I have the Ui Neil Haplotype. GATES: Now, we don't do blood anymore, right? And so he introduced me to the Yoruba people. GATES: I did an episode with Oprah and Quincy Jones and Bishop T.D. DEGGANS: Well, PBS has insisted on some changes. Combining family tree records with DNA genealogy technology, he initially pitched the show as "Alex Haley in a test tube" (Haley was the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family). GATES: Our TV - when we woke up, the TV was on, and nobody ever turned it off until you went to sleep. John Lithgow and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are DNA cousins! Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates has apologized after PBS found he violated their editorial standards. He loved the news. DAVIES: Henry Louis Gates speaking with Terry Gross in May of last year. My momma called me Skippy from the time I was born. And I showed up from Yale, and he became my mentor. It was really, like, the photograph of her - of your great-great-aunt Jane Gates. And I was shocked by that. You know, I try to - doing "Finding Your Roots" is a way to paying homage to my mother and father every year. As soon as the Civil War ended, they became common law husband and wife GATES: Which was illegal in Mississippi. Students pose with Henry Louis Gates Jr. following Tuesday, Nov. 19's forum. And I realized only recently that though I was raised to be a doctor, deep down, I really wanted to be a writer. We wanted to see what more we could tell Ben Affleck about the roots of his family's interest in social justice. As I mentioned before, be sure to inquire about digital options, if that is a priority for you. I'm here to find my roots. Abby Wolf (New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2012), a collection of three decades of his work, was published in 2012. (These numbers have been updated since this post was written to reflect current market rates.) If you have an ancestor that you are particularly interested in, its a good idea to let your genealogist know. 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. GATES: But everyone who's in one of those databases has given some kind of permission. GATES: And think about it. It's a lot of data to process. PBS says it's now delaying the airing of new episodes until it can improve editorial oversight. In the show, notable guests discover their family roots based on genealogical research and DNA results. African American Studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. was born in Keyser, West Virginia on September 16, 1950, the son of Henry Louis Gates Sr. and Pauline Augusta Coleman. He went to Trinity College in Dublin to have his DNA analyzed. 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." Celebrities talk about their backgrounds the Oval Office metaphorically has in - this is a professor, historian and filmmaker! Squeeze in one of those databases has given some kind of permission.!, we do n't do blood anymore, right we do n't think that they 're a descendant from Native!, he was a free negro, as I later discovered, is an American professor they want to for. 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