Finding Your Roots

Looking good.

No!

Wow, this is not what I was expecting to learn.

It's awesome.

My palms are sweating over here.

That's crazy!

That's why I'm here.

No way!

Wow!

That's my great-great-grandma.

This is amazing!

Is that not freaky?

That's freaky.

This is very intense.

This is very scary.

Scandaloso!

Pieces of myself are being filled in.

If this is a jigsaw, you know, this is another, this is another piece in the jigsaw.

It's making me think about a lot of the decisions that I made in my life, and maybe that courage and conviction came from my ancestors.

Did you ever think that you would learn the name of an enslaved ancestor?

I thought I might.

I thought I might, but it breaks my heart and I'm crying.

Not because it's a total shock to me.

It's because now there is a name to this person.

It brings me right there.

It like, closes the gap between 1865 and 2025.

Seeing this photo and seeing the striking resemblance of my mother, is blowing my mind.

You ready to meet your DNA cousin?

I am gagged.

Do you know we share a birthday?

That is crazy!

Okay, this is the fun part.

Ava!

Ava DuVernay.

Oh, my God!

Oh, I love that!

Well, I mean, what's up cuz?

Wow, this is phenomenal!

This is beautiful!

Look at all these people.

Look at all this history, it's amazing.

It's like learning there's a new room in your house that you've never seen.

Sheesh!

It's incredible.

It's really, really incredible.

How much of it there is, is awe inspiring.

Oh my gosh, this is the best gift I've ever been given.

I'm about to dream so good the next few days.

I'm so happy right now!

You don't even know.

This like, actually makes me so emotional.

This is one of the greatest days of my life.

If everybody did this, if everybody actually told the truthful stories, how different it would be.