Even the Native Americans came from someplace else about 16,000 years ago. 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. GROSS: Let's look at your ancestry and see who's really in it. By Alondra Nelson. The womans suffering is assuaged at long last when she revisits the land and people that indelibly shaped her, including a local herbal healer. And TV was on kind of like the hearth in New England. I'm going to be black. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. GATES: Our TV - when we woke up, the TV was on, and nobody ever turned it off until you went to sleep. And the last thing I did before I went to bed was - we always had a desk in our bedrooms and had a bookcase. [18] To build Harvard's visual, documentary, and literary archives of African-American texts, Gates arranged for the purchase of The Image of the Black in Western Art, a collection assembled by Dominique de Mnil in Houston. 3. He wrote his first column (about Little League games) at age 12 for the Piedmont Herald in West Virginia and continued to write for his high school and college newspapers. At one point, Johnny even told the KKK in a statement that Vivian was white. But they came from someplace else. And my mother used to write the eulogies, the obituaries for all the black people in the Potomac Valley, where I grew up. When I did Morgan Freeman's family tree, it was obvious through his DNA that he was descended from a white man who was an overseer on a plantation in Mississippi. GROSS: And it was reported as if it was a break-in, and a police officer came and arrested you. GATES: The Gateses all looked - my father looked 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. And when they analyzed my mitochondrial DNA, it went to England. In October 1975, he was hired by Charles Davis as a secretary in the Afro-American Studies department at Yale. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Elizabeth had suffered a stroke, her mind irreparably harmed. We started to roll. As I have written elsewhere, this new kinship category, DNA cousins, or what Gates calls autosomal cousins, suggests that flexible kinship is being made on the new (or is it the rather old) terrain of biology. Even if you were free and you were black GATES: In most states, you weren't allowed to vote. In 2021, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania honored Gates with itsFoundersAward. He's received 50 honorary degrees from such institutions as Harvard University and Williams College. Gatess father, Henry Louis Gates, Sr., worked in a paper mill and moonlighted as a janitor; his mother, Pauline Coleman Gates, cleaned houses. 6. Still, as the sociologist Troy Duster wrote in The Chronicle Review (Deep Roots and Tangled Branches, February 3, 2006) regarding the use of this analysis in the first African American Lives, these tests rel[y] excessively on the idea of 100-percent purity, a condition that could never have existed in human populations. We learn, too, that Yo-Yo Ma is 100 percent Asian, that Streep is 100 percent European, and, in a nod to comedy and to how quickly ancestry can become racial classification, that Colbert is 100 percent white man! What is one to make of an admixture test that reveals no mixture at all? Gates developed the notion of signifyin in Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self (1987) and The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism (1988). I mean, like, my - I'm second-generation American. GATES: But then they did another special test. That seems to be one of the programs aspirations. Cambridge is a long way from Piedmont, but Gates traces the journey in his 1994 memoir, Colored People. All that was on still in 1965 in syndication. Time will tell. 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. Following a two-year stay at Duke University, he was recruited to Harvard University in 1991. Root seeking, on the one hand, produces idiosyncratic narratives. Lolita Buckner Inniss, a professor at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, argued that notwithstanding African involvement as "abductors", it was Western slave-owners, as "captors", who perpetuated the practice even after the import trade was banned. So you GATES: Because of this white man. American playwright, actor, screenwriter, producer, and director. Hollywood Life, Latest Hollywood Celebrity & Entertainment News. javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net. I hope you never come back, you know? GATES: Well, I was on "The View." The current PBS documentary miniseries Faces of America traces the family histories of 12 prominent people who, over the course of several hours and with the aid of conventional and genetic genealogy, come to fasten their varied tribulations and successes to the arc of ancestry. He is a Trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Such information forces you to contemplate your own history, he observes. Historical evidence suggests that intraracial slavery was uncommon, and that when it did occur, sometimes free men and women of color purchased enslaved relatives and friends to rescue them from the cruelty of the chattel system, if not the social death of slave status. Rather, he works for greater recognition of Black works and their integration into a larger, pluralistic canon. I could've won the Nobel Prize, and somebody would say congratulations. Henry Louis Gates's Extended Family. Isn't that a cool thing? (Read Henry Louis Gates, Jr.s Britannica essay on Monuments of Hope.). Know Thyself, the final episode, which shares its title with the slogan of Knome Inc., focuses mostly on genetic genealogy. And I think that we throw terms like that around too loosely. So you're saying I should have been an undertaker. And I would watch this beautiful, brilliant goddess. He was a graduate of Frederick Street High School and in 1998 received an honorary doctorate degree from Seton Hall University. After an evening at a bachelorette party, she woke up with what she thought was a hangover. While assignment to the haplogroup L3x, for example, indicates an ancestor in what is now Ethiopia at least 50,000 years ago, this interesting detail does not fill in the contours of the family tree. Terry. Jointly appointed to assistant professorships in English and Afro-American Studies in 1979, Gates was promoted to associate professor in 1984. GATES: Now, we don't do blood anymore, right? And GATES: Yeah. And your father was a tailor, which is why we GATES: And my mother went to Atlantic City. Jakes and Chris Tucker. Would you do it? - like the Aunt Jemima figure. So where does that come from? African-Americans all think that they're a descendant from a Native American. August 22, 2013, 12:00 a.m. And they would be published in the newspaper. And if you're Ashkenazi Jewish, you might have a higher risk for those kind of things or Tay-Sachs. Fifty or a hundred years from now, he explains, my hope for the present generation is that a future Du Bois will look back on our time and say that, in this era of fracture, we drew a line. GROSS: Totally stunned. Cameo as a digital presentation of a fictional version of himself as, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 15:56. That's how much the science of genetics has changed in terms of the retail market since 2009. Tune in for all-new episodes as Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores fascinating ancestries and family mysteries for an array of . February 12, 2010. Joe Biden launched his presidential bid in April with a bold . Gates claimed that his arrest was a sign of racism on the part of police. While Gates has stressed the need for greater recognition of Black literature and Black culture, he does not advocate a "separatist" Black canon. Gat. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). When asked by National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman Bruce Cole to describe his work, Gates responded: "I would say I'm a literary critic. While at Yale, Gates mentored Jodie Foster, who majored in African-American Literature there and wrote her thesis on author Toni Morrison. They had a medical doctor who specializes in sharing this information. 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. He's also written for Time magazine, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. My mother used to read me - the greatest book ever written to me was "The Poky Little Puppy," right? Today's most compelling personalities discover the surprising stories in their own family trees. But I saw that photograph and read her obituary on the day that we buried my father's father, Edward St. Lawrence Gates. And he'd make a couple - a move. And it's for my father. Thank God. 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. And we filmed the whole thing. But mutations exist. GROSS: (Laughter) So I want to change the subject a little bit. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, African American who fought in the Revolutionary War, Alfred I. duPontColumbia University Award, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, The National Institute of Social Sciences, Who's Black and Why: A Hidden Chapter from the Eighteenth-Century Invention of Race. So we went - my father showed us that picture and that obituary, and we went home. This is FRESH AIR. GATES: You know, I'm totally exposed. It's incredible. Clarke, Breena, and Susan Tifft, "A 'Race Man' Argues for a Broader Curriculum: Henry Louis Gates Jr. After that I would say I was a teacher. 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. Additionally, he has worked to bring about social, educational, and intellectual equality for Black Americans. And they have a horse-drawn carriage. In 2021, Gates received the PBS Beacon Award. In the years that followed he earned a reputation as a literary archaeologist by recovering and collecting thousands of lost literary works (short stories, poems, reviews, and notices) by African American authors dating from the early 19th to the mid-20th century. Season 8. He earned his B.A. And then you see this white girl next to Claudette Colbert. Gates currently serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the W.E.B. There we go. But I also watched TV. Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren, Click to Subscribe to Get Our Free HollywoodLife Daily Newsletter, Rosanne Cash: 5 Things To Know About Johnnys Daughter Whos Speaking Out About His June Carter Affair, 'Finding Your Roots' Preview: Jeff Goldblum Reveals How His Mom Helped Him Fight A Bully, Ozzy & Sharon Osbournes Grandkids: Meet Their Grandchildren, Beautiful Nature-Inspired Baby Names Used By Celebrity Parents, Did Vanderpump Rules Tom Cheated on Ariana With Raquel? And I watched reruns of early black films like "Amos 'n' Andy" and "Beulah." We'll hear more after a short break. His taxi driver attempted to help him gain entrance. In 2021, Gates received the MIPAD 100 Network's Most Influential People of African Descent Lifetime Achievement Award. You might have breast cancer. 22,158 talking about this. 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. As editor-in-chief of the online magazine the Root, Gates has a background in journalism. [29] His op-ed begins and ends with the observation that it is very difficult to decide whether or not to give reparations to the descendants of American slaves, whether they should receive compensation for the unpaid labor of their ancestors, and their lack of rights. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Many of us were troubled. GROSS: Yeah. And so then they came in - this is a big deal back in 2008. And that is a long time. Elizabeth Gates, the daughter of prominent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, is in her twenties and suffered a severe stroke just four months ago. Barack Obama. summa cum laude in history from Yale University and his M.A. Gates's web series, "Black History in Two Minutes (Or So)", which he executive produces with Robert F. Smith and Dyllan McGee, earned five Webby Awards, including for Best Podcast: Documentary and Best Video Series: Education & Discovery (2020), Best Podcast: Documentary and Best Social Video: Discovery & Education (2021) and Best Social Video: Discovery & Education (2022). 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. 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. At the age of 14, Gates suffered a hairline fracture of the ball-and-socket joint in his hip while playing touch football. But it's just not those two genetic lines. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. GROSS: I saw his picture in the obituary. 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. ", The lesson of "Finding Your Roots" - we're all immigrants. And he fought in - for the Continental Army. "[14], As a mediator between those advocating separatism and those believing in a Western canon, Gates has been criticized by both. James . GATES: He wasn't even out the door, and I moved into his bedroom. 5. But the ancestry is being investigated against the will of the people being outed. GATES: So obviously somebody gave her that money. He maintains that it is "ridiculous" to think that only Blacks should be scholars of African and African-American literature. And another person to interpret my genetic data because it's 6 billion base pairs, right? Coproduced, hosted, and written by Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Gates was an Anisfield-Wolf prize winner in 1989 for The Schomburg Library of Women Writers. The arrest attracted national attention after U.S. President Barack Obama controversially declared that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting the 59-year-old Gates. You have to get permission. But it is clear, in any case, that we fully inhabit a genealogical society"to use the anthropologist Elizabeth Povinellis phrase. And she invents this pancake mix, and they become fabulously wealthy. [20], In September 1995, Gates narrated a five-part abridgement (by Margaret Busby) of his memoir Colored People on BBC Radio 4.[21]. Brooke Williams. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. In 2012, The Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It's a horrible way to start, in a way. Now she was born in 1819; died in 1888. - like the Bible says? When I became a teenager, my father and I bonded. And she would stand up and read their obituary, their eulogy. Omissions? (Note: Clotel (1853) by William Wells Brown is recognized as the first novel published by an African-American author, but it was both written and published in London.) 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. I can do it. I was more of a bookworm. And you - the last scene is the funeral. And I don't know if that ruined your sports career forever, but it affected your leg forever. In 2021, Gates became the seventh recipient of the, In 2021, Gates received the prestigious Gold Medal from. Now think about that. The latter, tracing the ancestral history of contemporary figures, was especially popular. Was this an equal sexual relationship? And she was a beautiful woman. And consequently, you are now a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. And the title is Race Is A Social Construction, But Mutations Are Real" (ph). He applied the notion to the interpretation of slave narratives and showed how it informs the works of Phillis Wheatley, Zora Neale Hurston, Frederick Douglass, the early African American writers of periodical fiction, Ralph Ellison, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker, and Soyinka. GATES: OK. 6.4K views 13 years ago Elizabeth Gates, the daughter of arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates, takes a few minutes to call CNN from Martha's Vineyard and talk to Don Lemon about the. Gates has such an eminent reputation", she said, "and so much gravitas. And we have a wall of degrees at home. The injury was misdiagnosed by a physician, who told Gates' mother that his problem was 'psychosomatic'. 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. [33], Gates married Sharon Lynn Adams in 1979. "Signifyin'" refers to the significance of words that is based on context, and is accessible only to those who share the cultural values of a given speech community. GATES: Very close to them, yeah, particularly to my mother. Having grown up in an African-American community, however, he identifies as Black. This trip came 25 years after Gates worked at a hospital in Kilimatinde, near Dodoma, Tanzania, when he was a 19-year-old pre-medical student at Yale University. Gates and daughter vie on the Vineyard. 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? "[13] After his 2003 NEH lecture, Gates published in the same year a book entitled The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, about the early African-American poet. 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. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. GROSS: So having done your, like, ancestry and everything, were you close to your parents? 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." In the early 1980s Gates rediscovered the earliest novel by an African American, Harriet E. Wilsons Our Nig (1859), by proving that the work was in fact written by an African American woman and not, as had been widely assumed, by a white man from the North. GATES: I said, thank God. (SOUNDBITE OF ALLEN TOUSSAINT'S "EGYPTIAN FANTASY"). And at the time, the airwaves were so segregated, they only put black films on "The Late Late Show." Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Accuracy and availability may vary. ". One of eight children born to Edward St. Lawrence Gates and Helen Gertrude Redman Gates, he was the youngest of seven sons. ", 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 we're listening to Terry's interview with Henry Louis Gates. She is author of the forthcoming Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Politics of Health and Race, and is at work on a book about genetic ancestry tracing and African diaspora culture. So you found out that your ancestors were, like, 18 miles away from where you lived.