Finding Your Roots

I'm Henry Louis Gates Jr. Welcome to "Finding Your Roots." In this episode, we'll explore the family trees

of 3 television superstars

actor Maya Rudolph, writer and producer Shonda Rhimes, and director Keenen Ivory Wayans-- 3 people who have changed the face of entertainment while knowing virtually nothing about their ancestors. I was thinking of, like, all of the little things that would have had to align... Mm-hmm. for--to get from there to here is incredible. I want to know how and why and what happened. I'm always searching to feel like I fit into something. I really want to know my ancestors. Yeah. Because if they didn't make it, none of us would have made it. Gates,

voice-over

To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available. Genealogists helped stitch together the past using the paper trails their family left behind... while geneticists utilized the latest advances in DNA analysis to reveal secrets hundreds of years old. Maya Rudolph. Whoo hoo hoo! This is your book of life. Gates, And we've compiled everything into a book of life-- a record of all of our discoveries.

Wayans

Oh, my God! Wow. OK. That's--I don't know where you got this. I feel like I-- I don't know anything. This is insane. Together the family stories of Maya, Shonda, and Keenen show just how profoundly our lives are shaped by the struggles of ancestors we never knew we had. My guests' ancestors overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to lay the groundwork for their success.

People shouting

Wayans

Gates,

voice-over

For over a decade, Maya Rudolph has captivated America with her distinct comedic style, a unique blend of precise character studies and colorful improvisations. I've been a fan since she first joined the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in the year 2000. It was clear from the start that she was stunningly talented. And I wasn't at all surprised to learn that that talent came from her parents. Maya's mother is singer and songwriter Minnie Riperton. Her father is composer/producer Richard James Rudolph. The two were a dynamic team, cranking out a series of hit records in the mid-1970s and raising Maya in a household filled with as much creativity as love.

Rudolph

I was just always a goof. My brother alwaysplayed sports, and I'd be, like,on the sidelines of his baseball games doing dances and singing songs and doing shows in my living roomfor my parents.

Chuckles

Rudolph

Just--just greatchildhood. Just, like,just the best. Gates,

voice-over

Tragically, Maya's idyllic childhood was shattered when her mother died of breast cancer in 1979. Maya was just 6 years old at the time, and in many ways, she's still grappling with the loss.

Rudolph

I thinkabout her... just, like, proud,proud, loving, loving mother. You know, I'd see her onstageall the time, this beautifulwoman. She just hadher own spirit, her own style, her own essence. Gates,

voice-over

Maya told me that after her mother's death, she became acutely aware of her mixed-race heritage. I mean, growing up, and especially growing up withoutmy mom, I started feeling like an other,you know? I think you startto realize your hair doesn'tlook like the hair on the heads of the girls in your classroom, you know. Because I went to school with mostlywhite kids-- Jewish and whitekids. So do you think you used comedy to fit in because you were different? Yeah. 100%. Like, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em"kind of thing. Like, I may nothave long, goldenlocks, but I will make you laugh until you love me.

Chuckles

voice-over

Gates, In time, Maya was able to make just about everyone laugh, and she used her mixed-race ancestry to her advantage. Over her career, she's portrayed a remarkably diverse array of characters, both black and white. Despite the fact that Maya is extraordinarily gifted at re-creating such a wide range of characters, she knows very little about either side of her family tree. I have this--this thing where I just feel like I can beanyone. Mm-hmm. But I thinkbeing mixed, too, I kind of sort of grew up feelinga little orphaned by the idea of my--my heritage. I know I'mfrom peoples, but I don't knowwho they are. I want to know people's names. I want to knowwhat they did. I want to knowwhere they lived. I want to go back as far as possible. Well, I think you've come to the right place at the right time. Gates, Writer, producer, and director Shonda Rhimes is the creative genius behind some of the most popular television shows of the past decade. Since their 2005 debut hit "Grey's Anatomy," Shonda has challenged industry standards by boldly casting lead actors of different ethnic backgrounds. Along the way, she's garnered millions of viewers, using diversity to change the face of American television. I think who audiences are and what they're made up of is changing, you know? Mm-hmm. We're not an all-white population. You know, we're not even a 50% white population anymore. But I mean, it was fascinating. I remember the first round of casting happening and me looking at my casting director and saying, "How come all the actors are white?" Uh-huh. And from that moment on, we sort of changed that rule. Like, if we say "all ethnicities," you better send everybody. Gates, Shonda's world view was largely shaped by her childhood in what has come to be known as University Park, Illinois-- a planned community with a focus on integration. Her parents, Vera and Ilee Rhimes, moved there to escape the racism of the American south. They raised their 6 children to believe in a future with no limits-- a notion that went unchallenged until it was time for Shonda to apply to college.

Rhimes

I went to sit down with the counselor, and I said, you know, "Here are all the schools that I want to apply to," and she said, "Honey, I don't think that you're gonna get to go to any of those schools." Hmm. And she said it very, you know, sort of, "Your people aren't, you know, going to these schools." And luckily, I had been raised by my parents, and so I sort of said, "Hold on." You know, it was a given, growing up, for us, that we were going to college. It was what was going to happen. Gates,

voice-over

Shonda's confidence was well-placed. She went on to graduate from Dartmouth College, then USC film school, before pursuing her dreams in Hollywood, where today she dominates primetime Thursday night television, despite being one of the very few black producers in the business. So, what does being African Americanmean to you? There's a rich history there. It's just--for me and my family, it feels like we're part of a small tribe. Mm-hmm. Gates, But for all the support that Shonda's family has given her, she told me that many questions remain about her ancestors. Whole branches of her family tree were never discussed in her home. Now, when youwere growing up, did your family ever talk about slavery, the experience of slavery in your lineof people? No, but as somebody who fills in every creative nook and cranny in my head, it's fascinating. You always wonder what their lives were like, who they were owned by--I mean, you always wonder that stuff. Gates, My third guest is the multitalented comedian Keenen Ivory Wayans. Keenen changed television in 1990 with the launch of "In Living Color," which he wrote, produced, and in which he starred. This breakthrough series with a predominantly black cast that spoke directly to a rising multiracial hip-hop generation offered something completely new. The show was huge,and it was funny, and you used comedy to explore racein a way that I, at least, had never seen before. We were doing our version of "Saturday Night Live," and it really kind of shook up TV for that time. Mm-hmm. And we became like these bridges in America, you know, between white suburban kids and urban kids. Mm-hmm. And we--we went for it. Gates, "In Living Color" helped jump-start an impressive career. With almost 20 films and TV series under his belt, Keenen has been a dominant presence in Hollywood for over two decades. But looking back, he doesn't credit his success to this innovative series. Instead, he thinks it comes from something much deeper. What do you think drove your success? Oh, family. My family was my motivation. Getting them out of the projects-- that was-- that was it. Growing up for us was very challenging because we were a large family, a very poor family. Even though we grew up in a poor neighborhood, we were the poorest of the poor, so were were kind of outcast to begin with, you know?

Chuckles

voice-over

And so we kind of rallied around each other. Gates, Born in New York City in 1958, Keenen was the second of 10 children. He grew up in the Robert Fulton housing projects inhabited by Irish, Puerto Rican, and African-American families-- a racially diverse environment that would prove to be the ultimate training ground for his comedy. The teenagers on the corner-- they would hang out on the corner, the white kids-- and every time I'd go to the store, they would call me "nigger." Mm-hmm. So I came up and I was upset, and I told my mother. My mother said, "Baby, you go back down there, "and if they call you nigger again, you tell them to call you Mr. Nigger."

Laughs

voice-over

So I was like, "Hey, yeah. That's, uh-- all right." So I walked past them on purpose, and, uh, the guy goes, "I thought I told you to get out of here, you little nigger." And I turned and said, "Hey, man, if you're gonna call me nigger, you better call me Mr. Nigger." They went on for 15 minutes, calling me Mr. Nigger, Mr. Coon, Mr... Mr. every derogatory black name they could come up with, and I was just, like, "Uh, that didn't work." So you went tothe acting school of the Wayans... That's right. That's right. Gates, Keenen, like Maya and Shonda, sees himself as a product of the world in which he grew up and of the parents and siblings who surrounded him in that world. Yet like so many Americans, Keenen, Maya, and Shonda know very little about the ancestors who fill the branches of their family trees. It was time to meet those ancestors and to see how their stories shaped the lives of my guests. Maya Rudolph's mixed background has profoundly affected her, yet growing up, she heard very little about either her African-American or her Jewish roots. To reconnect her to her lost heritage, we started with the ancestry of her father, Richard James Rudolph, who raised Maya and her brother on his own after their mother's death.

Rudolph

My dad just sees the silver lining in everything and figures it all out and has tried to motivate me in that direction my entire life because I get really mad about the unfairness of life, and my dad is just this beautiful spirit that just figured out how to look at things in a more positive way. Gates,

voice-over

Maya's father was born in 1946 and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His parents--Muriel Eileen Neufeld and Sidney Rudolph-- were of European Jewish descent, but both had lost touch with their religion and their roots. Were you raised in a religion? No. My dad was not raised with religion, because my grandfather Sid Rudolph did not believe in organized religion. He didn't like being told what to do. Mm-hmm. Did your grandparents tell family stories? No. I only know about Julius Rudolph, my great-grandfather, who was a haberdasher. Mm-hmm. Gates, Maya told me that she thought the Rudolphs may have come from Russia or Poland, but she didn't know for certain. I wanted to find out. We found our first clue in a ship's manifest for the SS Auguste Victoria, which arrived in New York City in 1902.

Gates

Now, Maya, this is very cool. Oh, my God. Judel? Mm-hmm. Rudashevsky? That's right. Judel Rudashevsky. Judel? Mm-hmm. Age 21. Judel Rudashevsky became Julius Rudolph. Oh, that's Julius? Yeah. That's his real name, his original name. Wow. Now, if you look closely at that record, he was only 21 years old at the time. Wow. He wasby himself. Yeah. He was totally by himself. It's got to beterribly lonely. Gates,

voice-over

Maya was eager to know where Julius had come from, but the manifest didn't say. We needed more information. We found it in Julius' application for American citizenship, filed in 1913. In it, Maya's great-grandfather listed his birthplace-- Vilna, then a city in the Russian empire, now the capital of Lithuania. "I was born on the seventh dayof May in 1882 at Vilna, Russia."

Laughs

voice-over

You are Lithuanian. What? Gates, During Julius' life, Vilna was considered something of a Jewish cultural center within what was known as the Pale of Settlement-- the vast area created by the Russian empress Catherine the Great in 1791. The majority of Russian Jews were forced to live and work here. By the time Julius was born in 1882, roughly 4 million Jews lived in the Pale, accounting for nearly 40% of the world's Jewish population. Although the ravages of two World wars have destroyed many vital records in the region, we got lucky. We found a Rudashevsky family birth record in the Lithuanian State Archives and were able to retrace several generations of Maya's ancestors. Your fourth great-grandfather, Abram Rudashevsky, was born around 1799. Wow. "Abram Rudashevsky, Head of the family, Son of Wolf"? "Volf." "Volf"? Yeah. Another generation on your family tree. Come on. You just met your fifth great-grandfather--Wolf. Are you serious? That's incredible. Wolf. Hi, Wolf. Gates, Maya has deep roots in Vilna's Jewish community, and when her family came to America, they brought their traditions with them. Julius didn't have it easy when he came, so we couldn't believe it-- just 3 years after becoming a citizen of the United States, your great-grandfather was one of the founding members of congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh. Oh, my God. It's a Conservative Jewish synagogue, and today it has close to 650 congregant families. Did you have any idea that Julius helped to found one of the largest synagogues in Pittsburgh? No.

Chuckles

voice-over

Why wasn't Ibat-mitzvahed? Well, but you have deep, deep Jewish roots by name. Which I do findhilarious because look at my grandfatherSid Rudolph. He obviously wastrying to come up with his ownthing... Mm-hmm. and stand apartfrom his family, because they wereso religious. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's...Big-time. shocking to me. I mean, count all those generations, and you're back to 1773. Wolf. Wolf. I love it! Like, me? I'm connected to that? It's amazing. For--for somebody who feels kind ofrootless... Mm-hmm. Not anymore. Gates, Like Maya, Shonda Rhimes grew up knowing little about her ancestry beyond her immediate family. Raised in Illinois by transplanted southerners, she was eager to connect with her lost southern heritage. We began our search on her father's side.

Gates

Your father,Ilee Rhimes Jr., was born June 4, 1942, in Colt,Arkansas. When you weregrowing up, did he talk to you and yoursibs much about his roots? He told us some stories but not much. But I feel like I grew up in a very southern-feeling household. It's funny because I feel like that's where, really, the spirit of my family is. Gates,

voice-over

It turns out Shonda's father's roots spread all over the deep south and illuminate many crucial elements of the African-American experience. In 1949, when he was 7 years old, Ilee Rhimes moved from Arkansas to Chicago with his divorced mother, a woman named Mabel Love. They were searching for a better life, and they found it, but they left a wealth of family stories behind. One of the most remarkable involves how the family ended up in Arkansas in the first place. In the 1910 census, we found Shonda's great-grandparents, James and Rosa Lee Love, living on rented farmland in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Their existence was precarious at best.

Gates

Did you ever hear of this place-- Sunflower County?

Rhimes

No. Well, Sunflower Countyis located in the middle of the Mississippi Delta.

It was known for two things

poverty and segregation. There you go. Can you imagine what life was like for your ancestors? They're rentingtheir house, and they're workingas farmers, most likelyon a cotton farm. That must have been brutal. I can't even imagine. Gates,

voice-over

The family lore claimed life was so terrible for Shonda's great-grandparents, they had no choice but to escape from Mississippi with their young family-- a risky endeavor, as white landowners were known to use force to prevent their black tenant farmers and sharecroppers from leaving. So one night, your great-grandparents sneaked out of Sunflower County under the coverof darkness and moved toArkansas. Wow. You ever hearthat story? No. That's so interesting. Can you imagine living someplace that you have to-- That's so bad that you have to pack up in the middle of the night and run away from. Right.No. Or face retribution if you even thoughtabout moving. I mean, you might as well have been a slave. Gates, Shonda's ancestors were taking a tremendous gamble. They left Mississippi with nothing, but they were willing to work hard, and their gamble paid off. We unearthed a land deed from 1918 for property owned by James Love. Remarkably, in just 8 years, Shonda's great-grandfather had managed to save $900 to buy a plot of land and give his young family a fresh start. Jimmie Love-- he got his 40 acres. He got his 40 acres. And by the way,$900 in 1918 would equal roughly $14,000 in today'smoney. That's pretty successful. To escape in the middle of the night with his family... Mm-hmm. to find someplace for everybody to live, to save $900 and then buy 40 acres of land is astounding. Yeah, and Jimmie Love owned this land for the restof his life. Wow. He sort of set himself up and his children up for a lot more success than most people ever had a chance at, didn't he? I feel like this piece of history is really powerful, but the idea that I didn't even know the story... It's quite remarkable. Yeah. I want to know how and why and what happened. Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? That--that person, the one who stole away in the middle of the night... Mm-hmm. you want to know who that is. Gates, Like Shonda, Keenen Ivory Wayans was raised in a northern city, but his roots stretch back to the rural south. To unearth those roots, we started with his mother-- Elvira Green. Would you pleaseturn the page? Ah, who's that beautiful woman? That's my mom.

Chuckles

voice-over

She is gorgeous. I was the kind of kid that whatever she asked me to do, I would do. Sure. You've saidthat your mother instilledself-confidence...Mm-hmm. pride,and self-worth in you andyour siblings. Yeah. My mother taught us to always challenge the ideas of the day, so that kind of stuff stays in your head and teaches you to think a certain way. Mm-hmm. I remember when I was a little boy, my mother got tickets to Leonard Bernstein. But she couldn't go because she couldn't afford a babysitter, so she gave me the tickets, and she said, "You may not understand this, but Mama wants you to go." And so she, uh--ha ha-- dressed me as best she, you know, could. I had on a plaid shirt and some corduroy pants, and I'm sitting there, and, you know, Leonard Bernstein. Everybody else got on tuxedoes.

Laughs

voice-over

You know, but she just wanted me to have that experience. Gates, Elvira was raised in Harlem, and its cultural scene was an inextricable part of her childhood. But when we followed her family line back one generation, we entered a very different world. Elvira's father, Keenen's maternal grandfather, was Ivory Garrett Green. He had deep roots in rural Clarendon County, South Carolina, where Keenen's ancestors worked for decades-- first as slaves, then as farmers on rented land. We were able to trace Keenen's family in Clarendon County as far back as his great-great-grandfather Marion Brock, who was born around 1840 and who almost certainly was born into slavery. Many African Americans are never able to identify even one generation of their enslaved ancestors by name, but we were able to take Keenen back even further. Marion Brock's death certificate revealed his mother's name-- Millie Martin, and because slaves sometimes took their slave-owners' names, we began to search for white men named Brock or Martin who might have owned Millie and Marion.

Gates

So let's seewhat we found. Now, Keenen,this is a page from the estaterecord of a man named Francis E. Martin. So it's an inventory of all of hispossessions. "Bill of appraisement of goods and chattels." Wow. OK. "Millie, $600. Abraham, $200. Moses, 125, and Marion, $75." The whole family. That's right. Millie and Marion-- they're both there. Your third great-grandmotherwould have been about 24 years old. Her son Marion, your second great-grandfather, was just a baby. This is...powerful. It's not like one slave. Uh-uh. This is the whole family, so this family has kept together... Right. you know what I'm saying? Right. Wow. So this is 19 years beforethe Civil War. We know that your family was enslaved. We know their names. We know whatthey were worth, and we know whoowned them and on what plantationthey lived. Yeah. You know, as a contemporary African American, it's almost a little frightening, you know? Because this isn't that long ago. Mm-hmm. And it's just proof of how far we have come. Gates,

voice-over

Keenen was surprised to see that his family had managed to stay together despite slavery. He was even more surprised to learn what they were able to accomplish after emancipation. During Reconstruction, when most former slaves were struggling sharecroppers, an 1872 land deed signed by Marion Brock revealed that he'd not only bought his own land, but a good amount of land-- 105 acres. "Signed, sealed, and delivered by his mark, Marion Brock." Right there,that "X." Wow. And it means that although he couldn'tread and write, your great-great-grandfather became a landowner...Yeah. just 7 years after emancipation. Wow. And, Keenen, we learned that your ancestor Marion Brock purchased an additional 95 acres 10 years later. Wow. That's 200 acres. Yeah. Your second great-grandfatherwas a mogul. He was like the Donald Trump of the black people.

Laughter

voice-over

Well, this-- this is amazing. But I did know that my mom's side of the family-- that they were a very industrious group. But wow. Isn't that cool? That's incredible. Gates, I'd already introduced Maya to a long line of Jewish ancestors on her father's side. Now it was time to turn to her African-American heritage, a heritage with which she's been longing to reconnect ever since her mother's early death. To begin, we traced her maternal line back to the marriage certificate of her great-grandparents Molly Grigsby and George Riperton. Ooh! I like this!

Chuckles

voice-over

Molly and George were married in Lincoln County, Kentucky, on October 28, 1897. What's it like to see that-- that that thing survived? This is incredible.This is beautiful. Wow. Gates, This marriage certificate helped us trace George Riperton's family back to Maya's third great-grandparents John and Lucinda Meaux. They were born into slavery in Mercer County, Kentucky, around the turn of the 19th century, and they have a remarkable story. In the Mercer County court records, we found a will written in 1826. It revealed that 37 years before the Emancipation Proclamation, the man who owned Maya's ancestors made the very unusual decision to free all 61 of his slaves upon his death and to give them practically everything he owned, including his tools, the crops, and all of the livestock. Two of those 61 slaves were your third great-grandparents John and Lucinda. Wow. Why--why did he... why did he do that? Well, he seems to have done so for genuinely moral reasons. Amazing. Amazing,amazing. I mean, it's reallybeautiful to see something like thatin writing.

Sigh

voice-over

Gates, Unfortunately for Maya's ancestors, having your freedom written into a will was no guarantee you would be treated as a free person. Court records from the 1830s show that John Meaux's family exploited his former slaves long after his death-- working them without paying them, ignoring contracts they made with him, and essentially daring the former slaves to sue their former master's family for what was rightfully theirs. Would you please read the transcribed section? "I frequently heard the Negroes complain "about being keptunder Meaux and that they ought to havetheir freedom." Gates, It's a shocking story, but Maya's ancestors were not about to be intimidated. They challenged John Meaux's grandson in a court of law. They--and won? Well, your third great-grandfather was awarded 100 acres of land. Wow. Your ancestor had the courage to stand up for himself and his family. He goes--he sued a white man in a slave state-- Kentucky--and he won. How was thateven possible? Yeah.

Chuckles

voice-over

Pretty rare, but he did it. Wow. That's justunbelievable. And he had to have white people testify for him. I can't imagine what the oddscould have been, and then they wentin his favor. To me that's... that's tremendous courage.Yeah. That's wild. Yeah. Yeah. They're my people. Mm-hmm. It's really cool.

Chuckles

voice-over

Gates, Maya understood that we'd been lucky to identify even one of her enslaved ancestors by name. But this was only the beginning. When we turned to another of Maya's maternal lines-- the Grigsby family line-- we were able to trace it back to Manuel and Mary Grigsby, both of whom were born into slavery in Lincoln County, Kentucky, in the years around 1830. Attempting to find out more about their lives, we searched for any white slave-owners with the surname Grigsby who lived in the area.

Gates

So it's a real long shot that in the whole county, guess what. Nothing. One family. No. Could you please turn the page? Yes.

Chuckles

Gates

This is the 1860 slave census for a man named John Warren Grigsby. Oh, my God. My God, my God, my God. I cannot believe I'm looking at this. Gates,

voice-over

The census showed that Grigsby owned 32 slaves, identified only by age and gender--never by name-- and so we began searching for traces of Maya's ancestors, looking for a boy who would have been roughly 5 years old and his mother and father, who would have been in their 30s. Now you see-- look closely at those hash marks. Remember James? He would have been about 5. Can you find anyone who could have been the same age? 5. Oh, 5. It breaks my heart.

Sniffs

voice-over

Wow. I just thinkof my kids, so it's reallyhard to see. Wow. 5 years old. Mmm. Yeah. Wow. I just can't believe what I'm looking at. Oh, my God. You're looking at your family. That was their baby. You're looking at two generations of your family tree... Wow. who were owned by that man, Warren Grigsby. That poorlittle boy. It's insane.

Sigh

voice-over

Wow. Just whenI understood what the numbers were that I'mlooking at, that's what brokemy heart. Mm-hmm. Wow. You just don'tthink of details... Uh-uh. because you don'thave them, so you can't,you know... think of--and then I see 5, and I thinkof my daughter. Mm-hmm. Mmm. And to think that you'd have no prospect of being free. I just can'timagine. How can you? How can you imagine anything like that? Can you believe that we were able to trace your family back this far? No. I had no idea. I mean, here you're descended from one ancestor who shows up from Russia, really Lithuania today, not reading any English, right? Or writing English. And on your mom's side, the oldest ancestor we identified was John Black Meaux, born 1797 in Kentucky. Wow. I mean,most black people can't even name the names of their enslaved ancestors, but you've just met yours. I can't evenbelieve that. I really--I really can't even believe it. But this strange connection that it gives me, you know-- it just makes you feel like you're part of something so much bigger. Gates, We had already introduced Shonda Rhimes to her paternal great-grandfather, James Love, who escaped with his young family from the poverty and segregation of Jim Crow Mississippi in the early 20th century. We were now ready to take this family further back in time. In the 1900 census, we found James Love living as a teenager with his parents, Anna Watson and Byrrell Love, and this led us to a powerful discovery. The census tells us thatByrrell and Anna were each bornin Mississippi over a decade before the endof the Civil War. OK. So they were slaves. They were slaves. You've just met your great- great-grandparents. Wow. It's fascinating to think about what their lives must have been like and--and who they must have been. That's incredible. Gates, To help retrieve those details, we turned to the 1870 census, the first taken after the end of the Civil War and the first time that all black people were listed by name in a federal census. It gave us invaluable details about the woman who is most likely Shonda's great-great-grandmother Anna Watson, including the name of her mother...

Shonda

"Matilda Watson, black, age 55. "Occupation: keeping house. Annie Watson, black, age 17." That 17-year-oldis most likely your great-great- grandmotherAnna Watson, and Anna is livingwith her mother, 55-year-oldMatilda Watson. She would be my great-great-grandmother? Great-great-great? Great-great-great-grandmother. As you can see, Annie's father is not living in this household. In fact, we neverfound the record listing Anniewith her father. Now, remember,Annie was born as a slave inthe 1850s, right? So it's possible that the family had been split up. Right. Wow. Gates,

voice-over

To find out more, we searched through the records of Monroe County, Mississippi, and soon focused on the 1850 and 1860 slave schedules for two brothers-- Asa and Rufus Watson. These listings of nameless enslaved men, women, and children identified only by age and gender contained our best hopes for learning about the lives of Shonda's ancestors. Would you pleaseturn the page? I'm scared. Do you seepossible matches for Annieand Matilda? Yes. 8-year-old female. 38-year-old female. Yeah. That could be your great-great- grandmother Matilda, and an 8-year-old girl, which isa match for your great- great-grandmotherAnnie. Wow. I'm a little bit speechless. I didn't think we were gonna go back into slavery at all. I mean, right now this feels unimaginable. Like, I sit here and I think what this must have been like, and I can make things up in my head, but I can't actually imagine what it would be like to not even have a name... Mm-hmm. to not even be important enough to have been assigned a name. Mm-hmm. Yeah.Yeah. What's even stranger is that-- and this is crazy-- but for my entire childhood, Matilda was the name I was gonna name my child. No. Yeah. So I kind of can't believe it. That's amazing. I know. It feels very, um... circular universe or something. I don't know. As we piece togetherthis chronology, your family's searchfor a better life is coming into focus, right?Mm-hmm. Shonda, to point out how much ground we've covered so far, Matilda was born 200 years ago, and then her descendant, James Love, was born in Mississippi in the 1880s. It's a remarkable story from 1880 to you. Yeah, from--from living in the most segregated, scary-- you know, living in Sunflower County... Mm-hmm. to now, to Los Angeles is--is insane and something to be kind of proud of. And I always think of, like, all of the little things that would have had to align... Mm-hmm. for--to get from there to here is incredible. Gates, We journeyed up one branch of Keenen's family tree to find the story of a newly freed slave who laid the foundations for future generations of Keenen's family. Now we would tell Keenen a very different kind of story. Following his maternal grandmother, Elvira Brown's line, we went back several generations to Keenen's great-great-great-grandfather, a man named Ben Pleasant who was born into slavery around 1826. We found Ben's obituary, published after his death in 1910. It revealed that Ben had once been the enslaved personal servant of a man named John Manning, the governor of South Carolina.

Gates

Could you please turn the page? Wow.

Laughing

Gates

He looks exactly the way you would expect him to look. Yeah. Exactly. Wow. This is Ben Pleasant. That is your third great-grandfatherBen Pleasant. Wow. That photograph was taken right after emancipationcame in. God. Very few black people havea photograph of their third great-grandfather. This is-- this is priceless. Mm-hmm. Now, can you believe that your third great-grandfather, Ben Pleasant, was Manning's slave and private valet? Gates,

voice-over

Keenen's ancestor served an extremely powerful man. John Manning was not only the governor of South Carolina from 1852 to 1854, he was also one of the wealthiest men in the state. He owned over 600 slaves across two plantations. During the Civil War, he fought for the Confederacy, and even the South's defeat didn't diminish his power. After the war,he was elected to the UnitedStates Senate, but he was not seated because he refused to take the oath of allegiance tothe North-- The Union. to the Union. Yes. So this Manning manwas hard-core-- Yes. totally hard-core. Now, take a lookat this. That's GovernorManning, and that's hisplantation house. Wow. He looks like he owned 600 slaves. Yeah.

Laughs

voice-over

Wow. Look at that house. Gates, In our search to find out more about Ben's life as Governor Manning's servant, we came across an account of a trip the governor took to Canada in the early 1840s. As we might expect, he took Ben along. But events north of the border took a very strange turn. And we came across a pretty amazingstory. You ready? Ready. Would you please read the highlightedsection? "While in Canada, some zealous abolitionists "kidnapped Ben and secreted him "until Governor Manning had ceased to make search and had started back home." What's this, man? Your ancestor waskidnapped by abolitionistsin Canada. Can you believethat? Yeah. He was taken-- he was actually taken out of slavery. Taken out ofslavery. And are you gonna tell me he went back?

Laughs

voice-over

Would you pleaseturn the page? Wow. Wow. Oh, my God. Gates, In another article, published in 1903, we found an account of Ben's willing return to bondage recounted in what are purported to be Ben's own words.

Wayans

"We went across the river into Canada... "But it proved to me that it was a mistake... "In spite of the many inducements held out to me "to stay in Canada, the love of home, and of those at home, "and my contentment with my condition, "seemed to blind me to all the rest of the world. "So I just picked myself up...and at last found my old master. And that was a happy meeting, I tell you." Wow. This is crazy! You know, when you hear-- when you hear-- when you hear about your family in slavery, the story you want to hear is that your--your great-grandfather was Kunta Kinte. Yeah.

Laughs

Wayans

He cut off his foot and ran away. Led all the other slaves to freedom. My story is he went back. Just, like, what? Wow. And do youknow what? He stayed on at the MillfordPlantation as a caretaker even after he wasemancipated and even after John Manning diedin 1889. Wow. So he feltdeep ties to it. Would you have made the samedecision? Well, um, I don't know if I would have made that same decision, but I understand the decision that he made. Mm-hmm. All I could think about was my family-- my kids and, you know. Would it be worth it, you know? That's not freedom. To leave them behind, that's not freedom. That's--that's anguish. Right. It--it changes the way I think about all history. I could never see myself before. But this information really allows me to know who I am. Because if they didn't make it, none of us would have made it. Gates,

voice-over

We'd reached the end of the paper trail for Keenen, Maya, and Shonda. Now advances in genetic genealogy allow us to look even more deeply into the past. My guests agreed to take DNA tests that would shed light on a part of their ancestry

once inaccessible to African Americans

the origin of their African ancestors. Shonda Rhimes was thrilled at her results. This is your Africamoment. Wow. That's amazing. 47% Nigerian, 10% Benin/Togo, 8% Africa Southeastern Bantu, 8% Ivory Coast/Ghana... Yeah, and 3 of thosemake sense, since the majority of enslaved Africans brought to the Americas would have been from those areas. That's so amazing that you can just pinpoint it. Isn't itastonishing? Yeah. Gates,

voice-over

Before we turned to Maya's African origins, we first wanted to help clear up a lingering question in her family. Like many people of African-American descent, Maya had grown up hearing that she had Native American ancestors. I remember my grandfather's funeral. It was an open casket, and I saw my grandfather there, and everyone said, "You can see it in his nose." Oh, yeah. Look at that. "He was part-- he was part Native American." Well, Maya Rudolph, would you please turn the page? OK. I knew it. I didn't know it.

Laughs

voice-over

Today I felt like, "Oh, he's gonnasay yes." Zero. Zero. Zero Native American. If your great-grandmother Molly was of full Native American ancestry, some of that would have been passed down to you, but since you have no Native DNA, Molly couldn't have been Native American. Are you disappointed? Yes. Gates, With this question answered, we turned to the question of Maya's African heritage. We were quite shocked by what her DNA disclosed. Maya showed a Southeast Asian component, quite unusual for an African American, which led us to trace her roots to a most exotic place.

Gates

So we did a little more digging, and we found something surprising. Would you please turn the page? Yeah? Madagascar? Madagascar. What? Mm-hmm. Gates,

voice-over

Scientists believe that thousands of years ago, people from what we now consider to be Indonesia canoed across the Indian Ocean to populate the island of Madagascar, bringing DNA from Southeast Asia to the African continent. A tiny amount of this DNA ended up in America due to the slave trade. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Madagascar was a pirate stronghold, and its pirates were occasionally involved in slave trading. As a result, there are 17 ships known to have sailed from Madagascar to what became the United States, carrying roughly 6,000 slaves in total. One of them was Maya's ancestor.

Gates

Think about how long that boat trip took. It had to go all the way around the Cape of Good Hope and then cross the Atlantic, and you're descended from one of them, and that's why you see that unusual result in your admixture in your DNA. Huh?

Chuckles

Gates

This is notwhat I expected. Yeah.

Chuckles

Gates

Gates,

voice-over

Less than 2% of all the slaves brought to North America originated in Madagascar, so Southeast Asian DNA is extremely rare among African Americans, which is why we were surprised when we looked at Keenen's results.

Gates

Where do yousee matches? There's not a single speck of coloron this map in the entire continent of Africa, so it means that your paternalhaplogroup is not from Africa, and it's notfrom Europe. Where is it found? Asia. Asia. MostlySoutheast Asia. Wow. That is your deepgenetic history-- that on yourmale side, you go all the way back to Indonesia, but thousandsand thousands and thousands of years ago.Right. And 300 years ago, you go back toMadagascar. That's yourKunta Kinte. Yes. Came fromMadagascar. Wow. You know, you have these ideas about who you are, right? And when you find out things like this, you know, I'm a black man, and I'm Chinese!

Laughter

Gates

What happened? Gates,

voice-over

That's the end of our journey through the family trees of Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes, and Keenen Ivory Wayans. Join me next time, when we unlock the secrets of the past for 3 new guests on another episode of "Finding Your Roots."

Announcer

To learn about "Finding Your Roots," visit PBS.org/FindingYourRoots and join the conversation on Twitter at #FindingYourRoots. "Finding Your Roots" Season 3 is availableon DVD. To order, visitshopPBS.org or call1-800-PLAY-PBS. "Finding Your Roots"Season 3