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African American Lives 2 -- Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
In Search of Our Roots -- Buy the companion book now from ShopPBS
Don Cheadle
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Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Linda Johnson Rice Don Cheadle Chris Rock Tom Joyner Peter Gomes Maya Angelou Morgan Freeman Jackie Joyner-Kersee Tina Turner Katheleen Henderson Bliss Broyard
Don Cheadle is an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning actor. Since his big-screen debut in the 1987 film Hamburger Hill, Cheadle has appeared in many notable films including Colors (1988), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), Boogie Nights (1997), Traffic (2000), Crash (2004), Hotel Rwanda (2004), and Talk to Me (2007).

Milestones in Don Cheadle's ancestry:

  • 1865 In March, Don Cheadle's great, great grandfather enlists in the U.S. Colored Troops in Western Florida.

  • 1866 A sovereign nation within the U.S., the Chickasaw Nation did not recognize the end of slavery until 1866. After 1866, the freedmen in the Chickasaw Nation, Don Cheadle's family among them, hold neither U.S. nor Chickasaw citizenship until the 1890s when the Dawes Commission redistributes communally held land.

  • 1964 Don Cheadle is born on November 29, in Kansas City, Missouri.

    • Put Don Cheadle's life and ancestry in historical context with the Interactive Historical Timeline.
    Major corporate funding for African American Lives 2 and its outreach initiatives is provided by The Coca-Cola Company and Johnson & Johnson. Additional corporate funding is provided by Buick.
    The Coca-Cola Company Johnson & Johnson Buick
    KUNHARDT Thirteen/WNET New York