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9780307382405

In Search of Our Roots

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780307382405

  • ISBN10:

    0307382400

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2009-01-27
  • Publisher: Crown
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List Price: $27.50

Summary

Unlike most white Americans who, if they are so inclined, can search their ancestral records, identifying who among their forebears was the first to set foot on this country's shores, most African Americans, in tracing their family's past, encounter a series of daunting obstacles. Slavery was a brutally efficient nullifier of identity, willfully denying black men and women even their names. Yet, from that legacy of slavery, there have sprung generations who've struggled, thrived, and lived extraordinary lives. For too long, African Americans' family trees have been barren of branches, but, very recently, advanced genetic testing techniques, combined with archival research, have begun to fill in the gaps. Here, scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., backed by an elite team of geneticists and researchers, takes nineteen extraordinary African Americans on a once unimaginable journey, tracing family sagas through U.S. history and back to Africa. Those whose recovered pasts collectively form an African American "people's history" of the United States include celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, Chris Tucker, Morgan Freeman, Tina Turner, and Quincy Jones; writers such as Maya Angelou and Bliss Broyard; leading thinkers such as Harvard divinity professor Peter Gomes, the Reverend T. D. Jakes, neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot; and famous achievers such as astronaut Mae Jemison, media personality Tom Joyner, decathlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, andEbonyandJetpublisher Linda Johnson Rice. More than a work of history,In Search of Our Rootsis a book of revelatory importance that, for the first time, brings to light the lives of ordinary men and women who, by courageous example, blazed a path for their famous descendants. For a reader, there is the stirring pleasure of witnessing long-forgotten struggles and triumphsbut there's an enduring reward as well. In accompanying the nineteen contemporary achievers on their journey into the past and meeting their remarkable forebears, we come to know ourselves. From the Hardcover edition.

Author Biography

HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR., is the director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and holder of the distinguished title of Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University. He is the author of several award-winning works of literary criticism as well as the memoir Colored People; The Future of the Race, co-authored with Cornel West; and Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Family Mattersp. 1
Prefatory Notes on the African Slave Tradep. 15
Maya Angeloup. 23
Quincy Jonesp. 41
Morgan Freemanp. 58
Tina Turnerp. 80
Peter J. Gomesp. 104
Sara Lawrence-Lightfootp. 130
Tom Joynerp. 153
Benjamin Carsonp. 179
Oprah Winfreyp. 200
Whoopi Goldbergp. 225
Mae Jemisonp. 242
T. D. Jakesp. 260
Linda Johnson Ricep. 287
Kathleen Hendersonp. 308
Jackie Joyner-Kerseep. 325
Don Cheadlep. 344
Chris Rockp. 361
Bliss Broyardp. 380
Chris Tuckerp. 397
How to Trace Your Own Rootsp. 415
Acknowledgmentsp. 425
Indexp. 427
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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