Henry Louis Gates Jr. On Finding White People's Surprising Black Roots

Henry Louis Gates Jr. on finding White people's surprising Black roots. The host of 'Finding Your Roots' on PBS shares a new bit of info on Joe Manganiello's Black ancestry.

#pbs #joemanganiello #findingyourroots

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[jericherry]

I am white, did a DNA test and found out I have some African American ancestry. Proud of it!!! I have been married to a black man for 34 years and have 3 biracial children. We are all happy!!!

[NancyCronk]

Finding Your Roots is my favorite show on television. I wish there were new episodes every night.

[godsloverevealed]

Dr. Gate's show should be a mandatory history and science course for middle and high schoolers because the show teaches history and science and can go along way in tearing down the racial divide. If schools can't teach all of our nation's history anymore, Dr. Gate's show is a great substitute.

[TanyaOwens]

Wow. I didn't grow up with my Father's family, but I learned 25 years ago that the Owens side of the family descended from free black people. So, when the Finding Your Roots episode aired on Queen Latifah aka Dana Owens, and discussed the Owens side of the family, they were discussing my family too! We are 4th cousins and the same age, our birthdays are days apart!

[rosiereal]

My favorite was actor Ty Burell finding out that he had, as he put it, a "badass" Black great-grandmother who moved to the Oregon Territory & ran her own farm.

[hyperian_one]

One of the finest television shows that has been produced in the last 25 years. I love Dr. Gates!

[donnaclark]

I absolutely love your show. My mother has dementia, but remembers that she wants to watch your show. We try not to miss it.

[fcisjoe]

Love it! When I was doing regular family genealogy research I found that my grandmother had lied to everyone. She was NOT slightly olive complected because of a distant Native American ancestor. She was the descendant of a house slave's daughter that had been formally adopted by the wife and husband who owned the Yager Plantation in Alabama. That was over 200 years ago. My dad gets very dark when he is exposed to the sun, but otherwise has German-Irish features. I have blond hair and blue eyes (like my mother and my father's paternal grandmother) with skin so white I cannot tan. I only burn and peal if I am exposed to the sun for too long.

Given that my mother and I are not racist, but my father and many of his side of the family are, it brought me great pleasure to rub it in his face that he has relatively recent African-American ancestry. Pure Joy seeing reports like this.

[kellycoleman]

My white family "passed" as Native American. When I called my mother with our DNA results and told her there was no Native American DNA, she said immediately, "Are we African? "

[joycestewart]

I always suspected my maternal family had African roots because of their coloring and their lips (which I always wished I had inherited) and after many years of mine and my cousins exploring our DNA we found that our family was not only of Iberian roots but also from the Bantu (I was very proud)! Our ancestors were world travelers! I love this show because it shows we are all related and brothers and sisters.

[oya]

Dr. Gates is such a pioneer and visionary. This show is socially transformative on many levels. It really helps to erode some of the dark shadows that lie dormant in this country's past. Please keep shedding the light on how interconnected Americans are at a deep, visceral DNA level.

[gracemarysjolin]

I love finding your roots, so happy Dr. Gates has been nominated for an Emmy, he deserves it ❤

[bananascoaster]

Oh lord, grandma went to the pool hall...😂

[barrywhite]

I love his show. As a black man, I've always been interested in family history as it's always harder for us to know our history because of slavery but also because the older people in the family who would know the history refused to talk about it, and now most of them have past away. Watching this show was what got me to do the AncestryDNA test as I was already using the site for my family tree. I found out that both sides of my family go back to Great Britain/Ireland and Europe and that my 3rd great-grandfather on my mom's side was the slave owner of my 2nd and his mother, but also that as much as it could be possible that there was some kind of relationship between them because my 2nd great-grandfather was named after the owner his father and I can't imagine his mother doing that let alone the owner being ok with her doing it if there wasn't some kind of relationship between them. I also found out that on my dad's side not only did our family go back to Great Britain/Ireland and Europe but also to India.

[ConstantGardener-qq]

Henry Louis Gates is a national treasure. What he has done is a public good, helping us to understand our true history and ourselves in all our glorious diversity, both beautiful and painful!

[WenD]

My favorite was Joe Madison’s🕊️For starters, he wasn’t a Madison. Then found out he was descended from a a white Confederate POW that later took up with and had children with a Black woman. That relationship lasted for many years. And an aside, he was descended from a Revolutionary War soldier, executed desertion. It was a lot going on in his tree. Plus, Angela Davis, a Mayflower descendent. That was a shocker knowing that she was a “Blue Blood”.

[priscillahill]

Joe Manganiello was one of the most fascinating segments you have done, and that is saying a lot! I am so glad you are doing a follow up piece on him! This is my favorite show.

[bqrygbw]

I love this show. Also this man is one of the most intelligent articulate gents out there.

[meredithboudreaux]

Im a white girl from Louisiana lol. I love to watch him. His voice and demeanor makes me calm. He seems very sincere.

[elinafilander]

Recognition flows both ways: when my father was dting 40 years ago and Vanessa Williams was crowned Miss America, he said she looked Finnish. We thought it was the pain meds kicking in but then years later it came out she was 12% Finnish. I wished I could go back in time and believe what he said instead of dismissing it!