African American Lives 2
 

Did anyone watch the premiere of "African American Lives 2" on PBS tonight? In a nutshell, Dr. Henry Louis Gates does geneology research on several famous African Americans and presents his findings to them. They did this last year for people like Oprah, Whoopi, Chris Tucker.

This year they profiled:
Tom Joyner
Dr. Maya Angelou
Tina Turner
Linda Johnson Rice
Morgan Freeman
Don Cheadle
Chris Rock
Jackie Joyner Kersee....and several others

I found the research they did on Tom Joyner's past VERY interesting. His great uncles were executed back in 1915 for a crime they didn't commit...he has NO idea that this even HAPPENED...

Or how Don Cheadle's slave ancestors were enslaved by NATIVE AMERICANS and not whites....

Makes you wonder about the "roots" of your family tree!

Tonight was only part one, I believe its a 4-part series. For more information, see here: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/

Share your thoughts with the group! Have you done extensive research on your family tree?

Excellent
 

what a great program - i only saw a small part of it but was really impressed by the research. interestingly, they asked tom's mother if she had ever tried to pass. she said she never had the opportunity. she is much darker than tom's dad. in addition, i was surprised by the memories that were surpressed by many individuals as a result of pain, horror, and misfortune of life.

mya angelo (spelling) told how her grandmother owned a store and a great deal of land in AK. She even rented a house to whites. When the members of the white family came into the store, mya's grandmother gave the white family whatever they wanted in fear that her uncle would be accused of flirting with white men. Mya also told how the white children would come in the store, pull their dresses up and show their panties to mya. Mya told how she was disrepected and her feeling of anger.


I encourage everyone to watch the program!!!

Very Good Program!
 

It was very interesting to see when they found Morgan Freeman's ancestors, one white and one black still together in death very much as they were together in life. It was great to see that they found them.

I bet Tina didn't know one of her ancestors help found the elementary school that she attended.;)

And to see Chris Rock's ancestor Julius Ceasar Tingman go from slave to soldier to twice-elected Senator to farmer in a span of about 10-15 years and still provide for his family even in death. Rock said had he known this, he would probably never have felt like he was inadequate growning up.

I wonder how many of our young children would not feel they same about themselves if they knew their history that they are more than what they see around them, that they can be more?

I watched the whole thing and can't wait until the next part. I do wish he had done this more on regular folks and not made it into a contest where one lucky person was picked. These celebrities have the $ to do the research if they wished, many non-celebs do not.

Henry Louis Gates...I can only shake my head about him.

This DNA testing to determine ancestry seems problematic to me on multiple levels. I think that the history that they are able to uncover that is not reliant on the DNA stuff is interesting.

And yes, some Native Americans owned slaves; and yes, they did necessarily not feel obligated to free them in accordance with the Emancipation Proclamation and the ending of the Civil War.

Alternatively, yes black folks did police Native American communities in the west along side white folks. No population is entirely innocent here. (I write all of this because of the shock that both Gates and Cheadle seemed to express).

Another thing I also found interesting was that he profiled a "non-celeb" this year. I believe the lady's last name was Woodbridge and she shared how her family always believed this TALL TALE about how they got that last name. After Dr. Gates' research, she found out that her last name was indeed that of her ancestors' slave master........:(

Just like the average black American.

I meant to watch this show but missed it. It is one of the "front page stories" on MSN right now.

Here's the link from the front page: http://www.theroot.com/id/44256?videoId=1386343560

According to my father his family name was English and denoted a servant/slave--the Chap's man