John Lewis and Cory Booker
Finding Your Roots looks into the ancestral pasts of two inspiring political leaders: Georgia Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Watch full episode. Episode credits.
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March 26, 2012 at 3:35 pm
The show was great!!!!!!! I can hardly wait for the next one! Thank you so much!
March 26, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Your episode with John Lewis and Cory Booker was amazingly powerful. Keep up the quality work; it is a joy to view.
March 26, 2012 at 9:32 pm
What a marvelous and powerful journey! It brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart!
March 26, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Love this showi! Just finished watching the second of the series Finding Your Roots. I really appreciate how this show contextualizes the ancestor stories in the history of their time. My dream is to be able to do the same for my family tree but I am limited by the ability to travel to countries of my ancestors – Puerto Rico, Peru, Spain, Africa.
March 26, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Every time I see a filming such as this it makes me want to just research famly histories ffor a living. I must start with mine. Thanks Sara for sharing this I stll one wish we can go and learn more of the “Monkeyman story.”
March 27, 2012 at 12:23 am
Wonderful heart to heart adventure for the parties reviewed. Great job as usual by Dr H. L. Gates, JR!!
March 29, 2012 at 8:03 pm
This program is very productive and enlightening.
March 30, 2012 at 3:49 pm
This is great. Hopefully PBS will keep this show airing … and if it’s not getting enough viewers, hopefully PBS will put it on at a different time, publicize it more, whatever. This is truly important.
April 1, 2012 at 11:29 pm
Great show. Keep up the great work. Some things are a bit troubling, but I suppose that boils down to personal politics. As much as I appreciated the show, it seemed a bit odd that Dr. Gates doesn’t acknowledge the very real possibility of coercion or rape (alluded to by Mayor Booker’s mother) of a teenage girl by an established doctor. Also, I couldn’t understand why this doctor, was afforded so much respect, excitement, and the consistent title “Doctor (First Name, Middle Initial) Brown”, while the venerable Congressman Lewis is referred to as “John” throughout the show. also, Congressman Lewis’s great-grandparents are consistently referred to as “slaves” (they were never that, if we wish to acknowledge their humanity – they were an enslaved man and a woman). But references to the pair after emancipations continued to term them “slaves”. Why? This isn’t historically accurate, and it reduces what appear to be very honorable people to a societal position that tells us little about who they really are. They did not have the title of a “Dr. Brown”, but this has nothing to do with the fact that deserve our respect and clarity today. This is not to disrespect Mr. Booker and his remarkable family, who clearly did not need the “Doctor” to forge a beautiful legacy. I just hope that classism doesn’t have to get in the way of respect in these kind of public historical displays. Other things I could mention, I won’t, but again, these are about personal politics. I will mention that it’s interesting that some family linkages are considered more interesting to the producers and Dr. Gates (subtle suggestion that some class groups or racial groups are more worthy of being connected to), but not it’s particularly surprising.
Again, thanks for the show – I donate, and I want to make sure my voice is heard.
April 2, 2012 at 1:43 am
this was very inspiring to watch!
well done, brava!
April 2, 2012 at 2:37 am
That was amazing-though I knew about blacks voting in 1865..that’s why Lincoln was
assasinated…and Blacks voted themselves in to the house of Rep..there was a majority..and Lincoln appointed a mallatto to the DOD to enforce the abolition of slavery..but slaves had nowhere to go..also there was the first Supreme Court Justice in 1866?
April 2, 2012 at 11:33 pm
Bravo! ..and thank you Dr. Gates. Your willingness to listen to stories helps to bind lore and truth of history. The clues in every piece of “evidence” are so very valuable, I appreciate the tutelage for my research.
April 3, 2012 at 12:51 am
The thrill of seeing the search for ancestors come alive and produce real people buoys me to do this search for my own family roots. I am sure you hear that all the time! The queries I have about my surname, my mother’s maiden name, my complexion, my estranged father’s family haunt me to this day. Of course, the light-skinned straight hair predominance on my mother’s side was always explained as descending from our Native American roots…yet again! After watching several FINDING YOUR ROOTS episodes, I have even more doubts about that Native American connection. It makes the search that much more crucial.
April 3, 2012 at 6:15 am
This is an amazing series. It is opening my eyes to so many facts about American history. Thank you PBS for more incredible programming.
April 23, 2012 at 10:59 am
I found it so heartwarming to see Congressman Lewis brought to such a state of emotion after all that he’s seen in his life. I really love this series!
April 30, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Of course, since the filming of this episode, Cory Booker rescued a woman from a burning building in Newark, on his own, with his bare hands (one of which sustained burns in the process). Looks like it was in his DNA to do so, as a descendent of a fireman on the southern railroad. Forgoing the lucrative prospects that would have come his way out of law school to spend years living in projects and participating directly in community action…the man is a genuinely great guy and I’m hopeful that he has national political prospects in his future. Charisma, integrity, smarts and Hollywood good looks help…but being a proven superhero tops it all off!!
May 16, 2012 at 4:08 pm
This is a powerful, positive message to the world. Both Mr. Booker and Mr. Lewis should be applauded for their accomplishments and, their individual fights to make a difference in this world. God bless Dr. Gates and all of the people who contribute to airing these shows.
I simply love it!!!
June 10, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Incredible story of John Lewis whose ancestors voted in 1867 two years after emancipation. Only to be instructed by Democratic politicians who were intimidated by black voters because they did not want African American citizens of the United States to vote. This is incredible. Out of fear of loosing control they cost 100 years of pain and suffering! “To vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool in our democracy.” So says John Lewis who commited his life from his history and his dna. Truly a humbling story for all his “brothers and sisters” present and past.
June 16, 2012 at 2:36 pm
Corey Booker grandfather was a result of a Southern practice called paramour rights. White men could force sexual relationship with black woman no matter what their marital status. Since black women had no way to protest these relationships were never voluntary.This was in no way a love story.
January 3, 2013 at 1:14 am
The story about John Lewis and family is one of the most inspiring I’ve ever seen. I was born in 1953 in east Texas and evidently in that part of the state there was a media black out of the Civil Rights struggle. Also the way the stories explain the histories of those times as it relates to Black Families is the best. I cant get enough of those kind of facts. Thank You. Keep up the good work.