We'll hear more after a short break. And that is a long time. Gates's critically acclaimed six-part PBS documentary series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, traced 500 years of African-American history to the second inauguration of President Barack Obama. And I don't think that he understands how much power that - to heal, to bind that the Oval Office metaphorically has. He also learned that one of his African ancestors includes a Yoruba man who was trafficked to America from Ouidah in present-day Republic of Benin. In 2022, the Boston Public Library honored Gates with its Literary Lights Award. As a Black intellectual and public figure, Gates has been an outspoken critic of the Eurocentric literary canon. So you found out that your ancestors were, like, 18 miles away from where you lived. He was 97, as you said. They had kids, and they're buried next to each other. Alexanders relation to Colbert or Longorias to Ma underscores a central theme of the series: Underlying the many faces of America is a fundamental genetic unity. Gates claimed that his arrest was a sign of racism on the part of police. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., called the book "an attempt to size Lincoln up through the eyes of Black Americans who visited the 'people's house' that their people had built and in whose names they were determined to win the fight for freedom and citizenship." Rather, he works for greater recognition of Black works and their integration into a larger, pluralistic canon. www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots Posts Reels Videos Tagged Well, I'll tell you a funny story. Gates collaborates with genetic scientists, including Eric Lander and David Altshuler, of the Broad Institute of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Harvard professor George Church, progenitor of the Personal Genome Project; and personal genomics companies such as 23andMe and Knome Inc. And we're listening to Terry's interview with Henry Louis Gates. He argues, "It can't be real as a subject if you have to look like the subject to be an expert in the subject,"[13] adding, "It's as ridiculous as if someone said I couldn't appreciate Shakespeare because I'm not Anglo-Saxon. 3. I'm going to be black. Thank you so much for accepting this award. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. That yearning manifests itself in many ways, from anomie to ethnic mutual-aid associations. And I cluster more toward the Yoruba than any - because 50 percent GATES: Of my ancestry is from sub-Saharan Africa. Based on admixture testing, Longoria is told that she is 70 percent European, 27 percent Native American, and 3 percent African. A collection of moments during and after Barack Obama's presidency. 22,158 talking about this. African-American - I love to joke about this. This is called an admixture test. And at the time, the airwaves were so segregated, they only put black films on "The Late Late Show." That's how much the science of genetics has changed in terms of the retail market since 2009. In July 2022, Gates announced that he would serve as editor-in-chief of the Oxford Dictionary of African American English, a new glossary of language that will contain popular phrases used by historical Black figures and modern-day Black Americans. And consequently, you are now a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. [citation needed] Gates has been criticized by John Henrik Clarke, Molefi Kete Asante, and the controversial Maulana Karenga, each of whom has been questioned by others in academia.[15][16][17]. GATES: That was one of the happiest days of my life when my brother went to dental school. 8. Gates serves as the chair for the Selection Committee for the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship Program that is sponsored by the Fletcher Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Fletcher Asset Management. [33], Gates married Sharon Lynn Adams in 1979. 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. All rights reserved. Following a two-year stay at Duke University, he was recruited to Harvard University in 1991. He earned his B.A. Yeah. It feels heartbreaking, Rosanne Cash admitted through tears after finding out that an ancestor of her mother, Vivian Liberto Cash the first wife of singer-songwriter Johnny Cash, who both received threats from the KKK was enslaved. And I loved the news. 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? A passerby called police, reporting a possible break-in after describing to 911 "an individual" forcing the front door open. or subscribe. Testing showed he had ancestors from sub-Saharan Africa, Ireland and England. GATES: Well, the average African-American GATES: The average African-American is 24 percent European. GROSS: OK. As Elizabeth Alexander comments in Faces about her own family history, We dont even know the half of it. That profound uncertainty makes it all the more troubling that Gladwell translates the peculiar institution into a personal burden. I killed my mama. And I make it every week over and over with "Finding Your Roots.". In Wednesday's press conference, President Obama called the Cambridge Police Department "stupid" for arresting Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. DAVIES: Henry Louis Gates spoke with Terry Gross before a live audience in Philadelphia last May. Such information forces you to contemplate your own history, he observes. GATES: Otherwise they wouldn't be in a database. Additionally, he has worked to bring about social, educational, and intellectual equality for Black Americans. His early life is described in his memoir that is entitled, Colored People (1994). 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. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In 1973 he entered Clare College, Cambridge, where one of his tutors was the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka. As a result of research he conducted as a MacArthur Fellow, Gates discovered Our Nig, written by Harriet E. Wilson in 1859 and thought to be the first novel written in the United States by an African American. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and professor at Harvard University, the seriess subtitles"The Promise of America, Making America, Becoming American, and Know Thyself"suggest assimilation, a melting pot rather than a tossed salad notion of the United States. And another person to interpret my genetic data because it's 6 billion base pairs, right? He reflects on his own history and some of the more controversial aspects of DNA testing. In front of all these people and all these viewers. 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? GATES: And we - they only put - remember "The Late Show"? And he fought in - for the Continental Army. Sgt. When the physical damage finally healed, his right leg was two inches shorter than his left. Whereas prior shows relied heavily on analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome (Y-DNA), yielding results that included at most about 2 percent of ones complete genetic inheritance, in Faces techniques are used that probe deeper into more of the genome. In the second season of the program, Gates learned that he is part of a genetic subgroup that may be descended from or related to the fourth-century Irish king, Niall of the Nine Hostages. Thank you for being you. GROSS: It's mind-boggling. On hand again is admixture analysistesting that probes a persons full nuclear DNA for genetic indicators said to be suggestive of ancestry; percentages of African, American Indian, European, or Asian descent are inferred from those informative markers. Each of the genetic analyses used in Facesadmixture analysis, haplotype grouping, and relative mappingincorporate underlying assumptions and algorithms that may be incompatible with the other techniques. He notably explored genealogy as host of the series African American Lives (200608), Faces of America (2010), and Finding Your Roots (2012 ). Isn't that a cool thing? GATES: Oh, my father and I were the first father and son of any race and the first African-Americans fully sequenced. [35] As of 2021, Gates is married to historian Dr. Marial Iglesias Utset. We might think of Faces of America, then, as an allegory of the simultaneous diversity of our experiences and the deep interpenetration of our histories. Stay informed daily on the latest news and advice on COVID-19 from the editors at U.S. News & World Report. They flew him in from San Francisco. Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. In the show, notable guests discover their family roots based on genealogical research and DNA results. So we knew he was Irish. And then when we go - when you were buried, she would stand up. All that was on still in 1965 in syndication. Like Joe Louis's fights, which my father still talks about as part of the fixed repertoire of stories that texture our lives. Hollywood Life 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." You know, I try to - doing "Finding Your Roots" is a way to paying homage to my mother and father every year. In addition to Rosanne, Vivian and Johnny welcomed three other daughters: Cindy, Kathy and Tara. The "You. Gates's prominence led to his being called as a witness on behalf of the controversial Florida rap group 2 Live Crew in an obscenity case. Biology matters. Hollywood Life, Latest Hollywood Celebrity & Entertainment News. GATES: I said, thank God. In some instances, we are left wanting to know much more. It was just put on the historic GATES: Register in Maryland. Except in the next scene, I showed him their headstones. So where does that come from? And I was in the hospital for six weeks. Contemporary Literature. ", The Letters page of The New York Times of April 25, 2010, featured criticism and examination of Gates's views in response to his op-ed. And my father would just make up stories and tell my brother and me. GATES: That's true. Gates was born in Keyser, West Virginia,[2] to Pauline Augusta (Coleman) Gates (19161987) and Henry Louis Gates Sr. (c. 19132010). Speaks onstage during the 'Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise' panel discussion at the PBS portion of the 2016. My mother would say, tell them about your brother who's a dentist. 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. Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s arrest continues to cause controversy after President Obama criticized police action, Michelle Gielan reports. In the first series, Gates learned that he has 50% European ancestry[22] and 50% African ancestry. GATES: Our TV - when we woke up, the TV was on, and nobody ever turned it off until you went to sleep. And that is the strongest argument for brotherhood, sisterhood and the unity of the human species. Yeah. 7. GATES: Very close to them, yeah, particularly to my mother. I have a couple black friends - I went to Yale with Ben Carson and with Ben's wife. In 2021, Gates was named a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy and elected to the Johnsonsians (Society). Author Herb Boyd, who teaches African and African-American history at the College of New Rochelle and City College, CUNY, argued that despite the complicity of African monarchs in the Atlantic slave trade, the United States "was the greatest beneficiary, and thus should be the main compensator". 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. Signifyin is the practice of representing an idea indirectly, through a commentary that is often humourous, boastful, insulting, or provocative. My mother used to read me - the greatest book ever written to me was "The Poky Little Puppy," right? People might remember the Beer Summit, when you were stopped in your own home trying to unjam a lock after a long trip. 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: But then they did another special test. Gates was also involved with various television documentaries that were aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). By Henry Louis Gates Jr. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. Gates currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. The event led to public criticism of the Cambridge police department by U.S. Pres. GROSS: OK, for two weeks. In October 1975, he was hired by Charles Davis as a secretary in the Afro-American Studies department at Yale. I am descended from - on my father's side - from a white man who impregnated a black woman and, on my mother's side, from a white woman who was impregnated by a black man. In Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars (1992) and elsewhere, Gates argued for the inclusion of African American literature in the Western canon. For example, while haplogroupssets of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are gene-sequence variants that are inherited together and categorized by letter and number (A, L3D, R, U5b, etc. Armstrong Williams, a person I really admire and like, I ask him, and he said absolutely not. That's a long time when you're young. GATES: And then there was "The Late Late Show." 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. Gates wrote a book about Jay Rockefeller's campaign to be governor of West Virginia. Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Head Negro In Charge. Gat. Cameo as a digital presentation of a fictional version of himself as, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 15:56. 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. GROSS: Totally stunned. The former vice president has become the Democratic front-runner with primary victories across the country.

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