Dr. Gates is a scholar, researcher, author, and professor with fifty-one honorary degrees from various universities. His presentation to us was entertaining and highly informative.
He spoke on how his own personal interest in genealogy led him to pursue African American Studies, and he highlighted how the miniseries ROOTS contributed to the desire of many to have fuller knowledge of their own heritage .His interests led him to develop the PBS series African American Lives and, a second, Faces of America.
He noted how each of the celebrities, when confronted with their personal and previously unknown ancestry, had an emotional response, that this knowledge often surprised and truly resonated.
Dr. Gates then showed us his own ancestral tree, including photos, and spoke of what he learned about his own family.
Part of his talk included statistics of African American ancestry and names of countries and tribes of origination. He then spoke of the huge numbers of children who are underachieving in inner city schools and who have no real idea of their true heritage.Since it's been demonstrated that knowing one's heritage can mean so much, having a major impact on one's self awareness, then why not introduce discovering one's ancestry as curriculum for children? This is exactly what he is doing.
A new ancestry curriculum will be introduced as a pilot program in some schools. Children will be directed to interview parents and relatives about family history, do a "paper search," then obtain permission for their DNA search in a worldwide database. The objective is for children to discover their heritage and develop a strong sense of identity and self worth. Outgrowth of this may be a greater level of scholastic achievement with an involved study of history, geography, etc.
To be sure, I will be following Dr. Gates's endeavors.
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