African American Lives . Profiles . Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

	"This is one of the most exciting projects in which I have been involved," says Henry Louis Gates, Jr.. "AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES is about African American history, of course, but on a deeply personal level. Slavery deprived African Americans of their historical and familial memory, and this series is an attempt to restore that memory -- on both sides of the Atlantic." Click on the questions below to get the story behind AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES direct from Professor Gates. Can you briefly describe AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES? How is AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES different from other programs on black history? How did the series come about? How did ROOTS affect your life when it aired in 1977? You selected the eight participants without knowing anything about their family trees beforehand. Was there a risk in that approach? Can you talk about the DNA analysis you did? What did it mean for you as a historian, or simply as a person, to be able to communicate this information to the participants? And how about for you? You went on the journey yourself, researching your family history. There are many poignant moments in AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES. Were there humorous moments in production as well? When doing African American genealogical research, is there one resource that is more important than any other? Were there any surprising geographical locations that your research led you to? Can you talk about some of the historical research involved in AFRICAN AMERICAN LIVES? What do you hope viewers will take away from the series?