Early Stand-Up Experience
Comedian Wanda Sykes recalls a poorly-received stand-up comedy routine early on in her career.
John Legend's Musical Beginnings
In this video, John Legend discusses his musical beginnings and shows rare footage of Legend performing one of his earliest compositions.
Suing for Freedom
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. talks with friend Margarett Cooper about her remarkable ancestry, and learns about her great, great, great grandmother, a female slave who sued her master for her own freedom.
Education | The Partition of India
The history of the India/Pakistan partition is told through the story of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s mother’s experience.
Education | Leaving Poland
Martha Stewart learns the fate of her great grandparents and comes to understand why much of her family ended up in America
Education | A Hurried Escape
Margaret Cho learns the reasons for her father’s family’s hurried escape from northern Korea when he was ten years old.
Gupta Family Scrolls
Finding Your Roots uncovers scrolls that have recorded 8 generations of Sanjay Gupta's father's line.
Spending Time in the Castro
Comedian and actress Margaret Cho talks about her experience living as a young adult in San Francisco's Castro District during the late 1970s.
Education | Growing up under Jim Crow in Grapeland, Texas
A look at life under Jim Crow in Grapeland, Texas during Ruth Simmons’ childhood.
Education | Growing up under Jim Crow in WV and TN
A look at life under Jim Crow in Piedmont, WV during Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s childhood and in Chattanooga, TN during Samuel L. Jackson’s childhood.
That Was What It Was
Actor Samuel L. Jackson discusses his experience growing up in segregated Chattanooga in the mid-20th century.
A Family of Sharecroppers
Brown University President Ruth Simmons grew up in a family of sharecroppers, a notorious system in which farmers pick cotton and live on someone else's land for a share of the profits. But they had to pay such high charges for rent, they often fell into a cycle of debt.
Children Keep Going
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice remembers the September 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church which killed four young black girls. Rice was 9 years old at the time of the bombing.
Education | Founding Mothers
Professor Gates uses DNA testing to trace Maggie Gyllenhaal’s maternal lineage back thousands of years to Ancient Judea
Education | Starting Points
Actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal discuss what they know of their respective family origins.
Faith and Rebellion
The story of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s third great grandfather’s central role in creating a religious community, and her father’s ultimate rejection of it.
Education | As American as it Gets
An exploration of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s connection to some of the earliest and most prominent members of the American WASP establishment.
From Butterflies to Beetles
Maggie Gyllenhaal learns about the genesis of the Gyllenhaal name and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. corrects a long-standing story in Maggie Gyllenhaal's family about an ancestor who supposedly collected butterflies.
Education | Noble Blood
An exploration of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s noble lineage dating back to King Henry I of England.
Education | A Long Journey
The story of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s maternal ancestry dating back to her Jewish great grandfather’s emigration from Tsarist Russia.
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