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Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr
- Season 12 Episode 2 - Great Migrations
Transcript
00:00Viewers like you make this program possible.
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00:15I'm Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
00:18Welcome to Finding Your Roots.
00:21In this episode, we'll explore the family trees of actor Sanaa Lathan and rapper Wiz Khalifa.
00:29Meeting ancestors who made incredible journeys.
00:34You'd think that your history is that deep, but to actually see, you know, black male 14 and then see him turn into a human being, a person, that's amazing.
00:47It's just emotionally overwhelming and, you know, I want to know more.
00:54To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available.
00:59Genealogists comb through paper trails stretching back hundreds of years.
01:04This is amazing.
01:06While DNA experts utilize the latest advances in genetic analysis to reveal secrets that have lain hidden for generations.
01:15This is mind-blowing.
01:16And we've compiled everything.
01:18Oh my God.
01:20Into a book of life.
01:21Damn.
01:22A record of all of our discoveries.
01:25And a window into the hidden past.
01:28I didn't know this was going to be such a spiritual journey.
01:32You're taking me on.
01:33That is your family in the first federal census to list all African Americans.
01:39Wow.
01:41That's insane.
01:42That's awesome.
01:43It's just fascinating to think of all these different people that have kind of contributed to the soup that I am.
01:52Sanah and Wiz both descend from people who made immense efforts to change their fortunes, traveling great distances with little more than a dream.
02:04In this episode, they're going to meet the ancestors who made those journeys and uncover the stories that got lost along the way.
02:44Wiz Khalifa is constantly smiling, and with good reason.
02:58He's one of the best-selling hip-hop artists of all time, and he's risen to the top thanks to his utterly genuine exuberance.
03:07But for all the joy he brings to the stage, in the studio, Wiz is a meticulous craftsman with a tireless work ethic, traits that have marked him since he was a child.
03:23My mom really figured it out.
03:26She started seeing me taking it serious, because I would be, like, writing rhymes, and I had, like, rap books laying around the house.
03:32And I kind of explained it to her, like, what our lingo was and what it all meant to me.
03:37So she was like, all right, cool, whatever.
03:40Not whatever, but, like, yeah, cool.
03:42Like, you know, I support that.
03:44And then the following summer, I went and lived with my dad, and I told him the same thing, like, how serious I was about making music.
03:51And he, you know, he allowed me to dive all the way in.
03:55I was like, if that's something that you want to do, I want to see you take it serious.
03:58Like, don't just say her about it.
03:59You know, really do it.
04:00So that's when you decided, that's what I want to do with the rest of my life.
04:05I loved basketball at the time.
04:07There was, like, a short period of time when I lived with my dad, like, that summer that I was telling you about, where I did normal kid stuff, like, you know, played sports, went to games, did all of this stuff.
04:18But I put the ball away.
04:21I wanted to do music.
04:25Wiz's ambitions would quickly bear fruit.
04:27In 2005, while still in high school, he signed a deal with a small label and released his first mixtape, restyling his hometown of Pittsburgh as Pistolvania and declaring himself a prince of the city.
04:45It was an instant success, but it wasn't exactly the way Wiz wanted to be seen.
04:51So he made a change.
04:54I was trying to be hard.
04:57Everybody was, like, tough at this time.
05:01And, like, I wasn't really a tough guy.
05:03I hung around some tough people.
05:06Well, I'm not going to say I wasn't a tough guy because you got to be tough to come up in Pittsburgh.
05:09But I wasn't, like, you know, that wasn't really my thing of how, like, you know, what I would do to you.
05:15And my music was, you know, based on, like, how good I was, like, at picking out beats or writing hooks or, you know, making verses come together.
05:27Right.
05:27And I was able to find a lane where, like, it wasn't back then where he's, like, you had to be tough.
05:32It's like you could be, you know, funny.
05:35You know, you could be a little goofy a little bit.
05:39You know what I'm saying?
05:39But you could still be smart and educated.
05:41And no one else had done it.
05:42Yeah, nobody else had done it.
05:44So when I started seeing that paying off and I was like, I'm just being myself and I'm able to create at the pace that I want to, I knew that that was going to take me to the top.
05:56Once he began to embrace his own voice, Wiz couldn't be stopped.
06:00He's gone on to release eight albums and over 80 singles, including Black and Yellow, a massive hit that reached number one on the Billboard Top 100.
06:14Yet through it all, Wiz has never lost his passion or his drive.
06:20I think what I did was just outwork a lot of people on top of making music, shooting videos, I'm editing videos, I'm staying engaging with my fans.
06:35I'm doing the artist's job and the label job at the same time.
06:39Wow.
06:40Yeah.
06:40And I was promoting myself.
06:41I was marketing myself.
06:43And I was doing all of the things that, you know, people wish that somebody could do for them.
06:48I was doing them for myself.
06:50So that's definitely what put me ahead is that attitude and just knowing that, you know, I enjoy doing that stuff.
06:59Nobody had to make me do it.
07:00It wasn't nobody dangling a check in front of me or anything.
07:04It's not like an end goal or an end result or anything.
07:07It's just this forever fire that kind of burns.
07:11My second guest is actor Sanaa Lathan, famed for her star turns in Love and Basketball, The Best Man, and Succession.
07:24Much like Wiz, Sanaa found her calling at a young age, but under very different circumstances.
07:31Her mother was an actor and dancer, her father a director and producer, and Sanaa never wanted to do anything but follow in their footsteps.
07:43I grew up in the theater.
07:47Mommy was, she was in the original Alvin Ailey Company.
07:51And when I was a toddler, she was in the original Wiz on Broadway.
07:54Wow.
07:54With Stephanie Mills and Eartha Kitt, and Eartha Kitt kind of took her under her wing, and she got to kind of share a dressing room with her.
08:02So I was always there toddling around behind the scenes.
08:06And so, you know, some of my earliest memories were me, like, in the mirror as, like, a four-year-old pretending to be Eartha Kitt, you know?
08:16And I would walk out on the stage after the theater was empty with that single light and stand out there and look out there.
08:25So I think early on, I felt like, yeah, this is what I'm going to do.
08:30Sanaa would soon discover that she had determination as well as dreams, and that she was going to need it.
08:40She began acting as a teenager and showed talent right away.
08:46But when she was accepted by the prestigious School of Drama at Yale, her father was not exactly thrilled.
08:54He literally almost cried. He was like, you can't be an actress.
08:57Really?
08:58Yes.
08:58Oh, my God.
08:59Because he just didn't want me to go through the pain of what it is to be an actor.
09:04Uh-huh.
09:04And, you know, one person, my acting teacher at Yale, literally the first day of acting class said,
09:10one percent of people who pursue this make it.
09:13Right.
09:13So you got to be pretty, you know, non-realistic in order to pursue it.
09:18And Dad had been living it. He was like, it doesn't matter how talented you are.
09:23Right.
09:24There's no roles.
09:25This is one percent of white people.
09:27One percent of white people make a living at it.
09:30So he's like, there's no roles.
09:31He's like, you know, you're so, you're so smart.
09:34You have so much.
09:35He's like, he just didn't want me to suffer.
09:36Mm-hmm.
09:37Of course.
09:38But I was like, no.
09:38Happily, Sanaa listened to herself and beat the odds.
09:45Just three years out of Yale, she got her first big break in the cult classic Blade.
09:52And she's never looked back.
09:56Sanaa has been working constantly ever since.
09:59In the process, she's not only calmed her parents, she's kept them close.
10:08You know, my mother, to this day, she's my scene partner when I'm learning my lines.
10:13Like, I will Zoom with her.
10:14I'll be in London.
10:15I'll be like, Mommy, we got to go over my scene for tomorrow.
10:17So she's like in the trenches with me.
10:20She can even give me notes.
10:21You know, I'm not believing you.
10:23You need to drop it in.
10:24And Dad has just always been that support.
10:30Like, I remember when I first came out to L.A. and I would be screen testing for things and, you know, for a great job that I thought was, like, it.
10:42And I wouldn't get it.
10:43And I, you know, back then, you'd be really destroyed.
10:46Mm-hmm.
10:47And that's the gift of having somebody, because I saw in his eyes, and I trusted what he was saying.
10:56Like, you will be fine.
10:57Keep going.
10:58Keep working hard.
10:59Keep doing your best.
11:01Mm-hmm.
11:02Every audition, it's money in the bank.
11:04And it'll come around.
11:05And you took that to heart.
11:07Exactly.
11:07My two guests have very different backgrounds, but share a common thread.
11:14Each of their families was transformed by ancestors who took extraordinary chances.
11:21Yet somehow, the stories of those ancestors have not been passed down.
11:27It was time for that to change.
11:29I started with Wiz Khalifa and with his maternal great-grandfather, a man named Willie Wimbush Jr., or Papa Bush, as he was affectionately called.
11:44Wiz was just a teenager when Willie died, and he knew almost nothing about his life.
11:50He was pretty chill from what I remember, but I was the baby.
11:53Oh, right.
11:53So anybody who got to experience Papa Bush, I know he passed away in 06, but, you know, we moved around a lot, so I didn't really get to see too much of Papa Bush.
12:04Ready to see what we found?
12:06Let's go.
12:08This is a record from the National Archives.
12:10Would you please read the transcribed section in the white box?
12:14Registration card, Willie Wimbush, age 18, date of birth, May 3rd, 1924, place of birth, Barnesville, Georgia, race, Negro.
12:23Date of registration, June 29, 1942.
12:29That's his draft card.
12:30Papa Bush was in World War II?
12:32Yes.
12:33Damn.
12:341942.
12:35World War II is raging.
12:37Damn, Papa Bush.
12:40Willie registered when he was just 18 years old and was assigned to the Quartermaster Corps, then sent to training camps in Virginia and Texas.
12:49At the time, the United States military, like most of America, was segregated.
12:57So Willie served in an all-black unit, likely under a white officer.
13:03What do you think that was like?
13:05Yeah, at that time?
13:08Yeah.
13:08Back then?
13:09Mm-hmm.
13:10Yeah, he probably got caught a few N's.
13:14Not Negro.
13:14Yeah, you got it.
13:16Please turn the page.
13:17These are two letters from black men who went through military training with the Quartermaster Corps around the very same time as your great-grandfather.
13:28Would you please read the transcribed sections in the white box?
13:31The company as a whole has a part to play in this war, which is for the survival of our ideals and the opportunity to carry on the fight for democracy that serves one and all equally.
13:43We're ready, willing, and able, but we're not going to accept the conditions our battalion commanders are trying to force upon us.
13:50He is a rough, dried, leather-necked Negro-hating cracker from Louisiana who has insulted all Negroes in general, calls our women everything but women, misused soldiers, treats us as if we were in a forced labor camp or chain gang.
14:06Wow.
14:07What's it like to read that?
14:09Um, it sounds about right, but the fact that he was willing to write in and complain, it seems like it was pretty, you know,
14:21pretty unbearable.
14:22Mm-hmm.
14:23Um, because I feel like most, most of those cats were just used to it.
14:28Mm-hmm.
14:28But if it's, you know, to the point of writing a letter and explaining what these people's behavior is like, I feel like it must have been pretty bad.
14:39Had to be horrible.
14:40Yeah.
14:41In spite of the racism, Wiz's great-grandfather thrived in the Army.
14:46He completed his training, was assigned to a truck regiment, and given a rank reserved for men who demonstrated special technical skills.
14:56But even so, Willie was most likely unprepared for what lay ahead.
15:04In December of 1943, with war raging across the Pacific, his regiment boarded a ship and ended up on the island of New Guinea.
15:16Wow.
15:16Did you know that?
15:18No, I didn't know that at all.
15:20Did you have any idea anybody in your family had been and lived in New Guinea?
15:23No.
15:24By early 1944, his unit was stationed in New Guinea, which is off the northern coast of Australia.
15:32Okay.
15:33So any idea why your ancestor would be there?
15:36Nah.
15:37Let's find out.
15:38All right, let's find out.
15:39Please turn the page.
15:40Let's go.
15:42These are the Allied troops during the fight against the Japanese.
15:46Oh, damn.
15:47In New Guinea.
15:48Oof, that had to be rough.
15:50And your ancestor was there.
15:51Can you imagine?
15:52Yo, that was probably so rough.
15:55Oh, it was terrible.
15:56They got big-ass spiders out there.
15:58Yeah, and big-ass bullets.
16:03Due to its strategic location, New Guinea was a battleground for much of the war, the site of ferocious fighting between Japan and the Western Allies, fighting that claimed over 200,000 lives.
16:22While Willie didn't see combat, there was bloodshed all around him.
16:28Indeed, his regiment was likely providing support for soldiers on the front lines.
16:33Jeez.
16:37Damn, Papa Bush.
16:40Bringing them loads in.
16:41Yeah.
16:42And, you know, the quartermasters, a lot of them got killed because they are...
16:45Because they're transported.
16:46That's right.
16:47It was dangerous work.
16:48Hell yeah.
16:49You're in writing.
16:50You're driving into the middle of it.
16:52Mm-hmm.
16:52Like, through it.
16:53Yeah.
16:54Yeah.
16:54I mean, think about this.
16:55You had to fight racism in your ranks and then go out and risk your life at the threat of being killed by the Japanese.
17:02Yeah.
17:02And, like, the better you are at getting goods to people, the more that they're going to use you to do it.
17:07Yeah.
17:07And that's going to increase your chances of getting blown up.
17:10Yeah.
17:10He was pretty good.
17:11He was good.
17:12And he didn't get blown up.
17:13Yeah, he didn't get smoked.
17:14Willie was discharged on July 3rd, 1944, about one year and eight months after he enlisted.
17:22Let's see what he did next.
17:23Thank God.
17:24Yeah.
17:25This is a record from Lamar County, Georgia.
17:28Would you please read that transcribed section?
17:31I certify that Willie Wimbush and Claire Ogletree were joined in matrimony by me this 27th day of December 1945.
17:40That's your great-grandparents' marriage record.
17:42What's it like to see that?
17:44That's wild, you know?
17:46Never thought I would see nothing like that.
17:47After their wedding, Wiz's great-grandparents settled in Barnesville, Georgia, where Willie found a job as a salesman and Clara worked as a maid.
18:00World War II was over.
18:03And the American economy would soon be booming.
18:08But the young couple still faced daunting challenges.
18:11Now, you would think that because of the heroism of people like your great-grandfather, race relations would improve, right?
18:20Uh, no.
18:22Let's see if you're right.
18:23This is dated August 8th, 1946, less than a year after your great-grandparents got married.
18:32Would you please read the transcribed section?
18:34Among the casualties of war, 1946.
18:38January 4th, four Negro veterans killed in Birmingham, Alabama.
18:42February 5th, two Negro veterans killed in Freeport, Long Island.
18:46February 13th, Negro veterans eyes gouged out by Aiken, South Carolina policeman.
18:51Man, damn.
18:52Yeah.
18:52February 25th, two Negroes, one a veteran, killed in Columbia, Tennessee jail.
18:58July 17th, Maceo Snipes, veteran, only Negro to vote in his district, murdered in Taylor County, Georgia.
19:05July 22nd, Leon McTady whipped to death near Lexington.
19:09Dang.
19:10July 24th, four Negroes, two men and two women lynched by a mob in Walton County, Georgia.
19:15Damn.
19:16During and after World War II, there was an explosion of violence against African Americans in many states, including Georgia.
19:24And much of it was directed toward black soldiers and veterans who had returned from the war.
19:29And you could guess why.
19:31They had borne arms.
19:33They had risked their lives.
19:35And they came back and said, I'm not going to take this anymore.
19:38You know, this Jim Crow's got to go.
19:40And so they were perceived as a threat.
19:43And the racists wanted to take some of them and make them example.
19:47You know, to try to make them docile again.
19:51Right.
19:52Can you imagine serving your country and coming back home to that kind of reception?
19:56No.
19:57It's crazy that people were expected to just think that that was normal and not fight back.
20:03Mm-hmm.
20:03Yeah.
20:03How do you think Willie and Clara felt, seeing this in the news, hearing about soldiers getting murdered or mutilated?
20:11I think it was probably really scary just to know that it was happening and it was a possibility, but also to be that young and to not feel protected.
20:24Mm-hmm.
20:25Yeah.
20:28Willie and Clara now confronted a choice.
20:31All around them, African Americans were on the move, heading out of the South for the cities of the North and West, part of what we now call the Great Migration.
20:45Moving meant opportunity.
20:48But it also meant leaving friends, families, and decades of tradition behind, a dilemma that Wiz understands all too well.
21:01I feel like in the South, there was a sense of familiarity because that's where they come from, but it was also difficult to deal with.
21:09But I think the familiarity, you know, kind of outweighed it because it was like, what are the chances that we could take somewhere else other than being here?
21:20This is kind of all we know. This is how we grew up.
21:24So, of course, you know, you want better treatment, but I think it might, you know, be difficult because it's like, what does that look like on the other side?
21:33It takes a lot of courage to move.
21:34Right, exactly.
21:35Well, let's see what they did.
21:37Please turn the page.
21:39Wiz, city director, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
21:42All right.
21:421955, Wimbush, Willie, machine operator, Clara, laboratory aide, McGee Hospital.
21:50Cool.
21:51Yeah.
21:51That's pretty dope.
21:52By 1955, Willie and his family had had it up and moved north to Pittsburgh.
21:58Nice.
21:59And settled down in the Hill District, which you know is the predominantly black neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
22:04What's it like to learn this, these details?
22:08It's really good to learn it, just to know, just to feel Papa Bush's ambition through his story.
22:17Yeah.
22:18That's what I can feel.
22:18Yeah.
22:19Yeah.
22:20And his courage.
22:21Courage, yeah.
22:22Their courage.
22:23Yeah, yeah.
22:23Their willingness to roll the dice.
22:25Yeah.
22:26Because a lot of people left the South in the Great Migration, but a lot more stayed home.
22:30Right.
22:31So that even in the same family, some people say, I'm going to Pittsburgh.
22:35And some people say, where the hell is that?
22:36You grew up there, you don't know nobody.
22:39Mm-hmm.
22:39Why don't you stay here?
22:40Right.
22:41Where the peaches are good.
22:43It's pretty cool.
22:44That is pretty cool.
22:44Yeah.
22:47Turning to Sanaa Lathan, we found ourselves back in the Jim Crow era, exploring a family
22:53with a very different migration story.
22:57It begins with Sanaa's maternal grandfather, Wesley B. McCoy.
23:03Wesley was born in Indiana in 1915, and Sanaa grew up knowing that she had roots in the Midwest.
23:13But she knew little more about this part of her family because her grandfather was a complicated
23:19man.
23:19I was never really close to him.
23:23He wasn't really around when I was growing up.
23:28But as I got older, I remember he used to come to my plays a lot when I was in drama school,
23:33and he would always bring a different woman.
23:34Oh.
23:35He was a real Casanova.
23:38Till the end, he would have like three girlfriends that would talk about him.
23:42You know, like I like this one because of this.
23:45So he was definitely a ladies' man.
23:49Do you know anything about his roots?
23:52No.
23:52No?
23:53Good.
23:53Makes you ideal guess.
23:55Okay.
23:58It's too bad that Sanaa's grandfather was so focused on his romantic life because his roots
24:04were fascinating.
24:05His father, a man named Wesley Deer McCoy, was born in Texas in 1879.
24:14By 1908, he had enrolled at a veterinary college in Michigan alongside another African American
24:21named Felix Booker.
24:24At the time, there were only a handful of black veterinarians in the entire United States.
24:30And perhaps unsurprisingly, Wesley and Felix were not treated well.
24:37After completing their first year, they were denied admission for the following year,
24:42solely because of their race.
24:46Many people would have walked away out of sheer hopelessness.
24:50But not these two.
24:53Wesley and Felix sued the school.
24:55One of the first anti-segregation cases ever filed on behalf of college students in America.
25:04And your great-grandfather was a part of it.
25:06He made legal history.
25:09That's so crazy.
25:10I'm so, I'm surprised that granddaddy, we used to call him granddaddy, that he didn't
25:15tell us that.
25:16Or maybe I just didn't pay attention, you know.
25:19But I don't remember this.
25:21This is amazing.
25:23Isn't that incredible?
25:24I mean, you have a race pioneer, civil rights pioneer, on your family tree.
25:29Yes.
25:30I'm so proud of him.
25:31Yeah, me too.
25:34In court, lawyers argued that a Michigan law dating back to the 1860s prohibited segregation
25:41in the state's public schools.
25:44And Wesley and Felix won their case.
25:47But when the two men returned to their classrooms, they found that many of their fellow students
25:53did not care about the verdict.
25:58Hanging in effigy, a figure representing a Negro student, 34 of the 39 members of the
26:05junior class at the Grand Rapids Veterinarian College this morning showed the feeling towards
26:10the Negro.
26:10Oh, my God.
26:12See, this is where I'm going to cry.
26:14Felix D. Booker and Wesley D. McCoy applied and were admitted.
26:26The junior class at once walked out and passed resolutions that they would not attend classes
26:31in company with the Negro students.
26:32Later, the students made up an effigy representing the Negro man and hung it in one of the halls.
26:40The class went ahead, but there were only six pupils present, four white and two Negroes.
26:47Ugh, God.
26:49Even though your great-grandfather had won his case in court, he still had to face the racism
26:55of his fellow classmates.
26:56Yeah.
26:57It's just so sad.
26:58Imagine sitting through that class.
27:00Yeah.
27:01Yeah.
27:01You got to be pretty strong.
27:04Wesley's strength would soon face another challenge.
27:08Following the lead of its students, the administration of his college decided to appeal the court ruling
27:14that had brought him back to class.
27:18Wesley's victory was short-lived.
27:20Yes.
27:20Grand Rapids Medical College took the case all the way up to Michigan State Supreme Court,
27:25which ruled against your great-grandfather.
27:27Both Wesley and his classmate Felix were forced to leave school without finishing the program.
27:34How do you think your great-grandfather responded?
27:37Imagine how he felt.
27:39I don't know.
27:40I don't know.
27:41I mean, I know it didn't feel good.
27:42Mm-hmm.
27:43But it seems like he's a fighter, so I'm sure that that, you know...
27:46Mm-hmm.
27:47He continued fighting in some kind of way.
27:50I don't know if it was at school.
27:51Mm-hmm.
27:52Well, let's see.
27:53Okay.
27:53Please turn the page.
27:54I'm so excited.
27:56This is a record from the year 1913, three years after the article we just saw.
28:00Would you please read that transcribed section?
28:03Wesley Deer McCoy, Mac, comes to us from the state of Michigan, having early learned to
28:11love the cow, horse, and dog, decided to make a special study of them.
28:16So in the fall of 1910, we met him, applying for entrance at the Ontario Veterinary College.
28:23Yes.
28:24So is that it?
28:25That's in Canada.
28:26He was like, y'all ain't stopping me.
28:29That's right.
28:29I love it.
28:30In 1910, about a year after he was barred from study in Michigan, Wesley left the United
28:38States, heading north, and enrolled in another veterinary college at the University of Toronto.
28:46I said he was a fighter.
28:48Yep, you were right.
28:49I mean, that was part of his character.
28:51I mean, he had to really be, I mean, what a determined, you know, kind of mind.
29:00And soul to have endured that cruelty in that first college, but even just to apply, you
29:09know?
29:10Yeah.
29:10And he had to undertake a search for a veterinary college somewhere.
29:15Yes.
29:16That would take Negroes.
29:17Yes.
29:17So, dear sir, do you take a Negro?
29:20After Wesley graduated, he may well have been tempted to remain in Canada, but his family
29:30and his heart lay in America, and it seems they drew him back.
29:36That decision would pay off in a big way.
29:41Returning to Michigan, Wesley launched a successful veterinary practice and married Sanaa's great
29:48grandmother.
29:50What do you make of him knowing everything that he went through, the challenges he faced?
29:55I love him.
29:56Yeah?
29:57I love that.
29:57I wish I could sit and have dinner with him.
29:59Does it change the way you see yourself?
30:02Does it help you understand how you evolved?
30:06It does.
30:07Mm-hmm.
30:07Yes, it does.
30:08I didn't know this was going to be such a spiritual journey you're taking me on.
30:14Yeah.
30:15And I know I'm going to go home and really think about this.
30:18And it's beautiful to think about a life, you know, a full life, and how that kind of
30:27has influenced you in ways that you never knew.
30:32Isn't that fascinating?
30:33It is so, it's so cool.
30:35It's so amazing.
30:36It's so amazing.
31:06So we began searching for the white people who may have owned Wiz's ancestors.
31:14It was a painstaking process.
31:17But in the 1870 census for Alabama, we found what looked like a clue.
31:24This is the first federal census recorded after the Civil War.
31:28It lists Wiz's fifth great grandfather, a man named Howard Williamson, living next door
31:36to a white family headed by a man who shared his surname, Thomas J. Williamson.
31:42So you know what that means.
31:45Wiz, we suspected that this white Williamson family had owned your ancestors in bondage
31:52during slavery.
31:53Damn.
31:54We don't know for sure.
31:55It's just coincidence.
31:56Mm-hmm.
31:56But they're living next door to each other.
31:57Yeah.
31:58And they have the same name.
31:59Right.
31:59Looks like a duck.
32:00It quacks like a duck.
32:02It's probably a duck.
32:03Right.
32:03So how does it make you feel to, at this point, reasonably surmise that you just met the white
32:14man who owned your family in slavery?
32:17I think I'm programmed to feel a little bit pissed.
32:21Mm-hmm.
32:22But just him owning my family just sounds crazy.
32:25That just sounds wild.
32:26Yeah.
32:26Yeah.
32:27It gives me a little, I feel some type of way about that.
32:30Can you imagine owning another human being?
32:32Yeah, it's crazy.
32:33It's crazy.
32:33Yeah.
32:34The whole concept's crazy.
32:35It's wild.
32:37Now that we'd identified the man who likely owned Wiz's ancestor, we focused on the records
32:43that he left behind.
32:44In the 1850 census, we found a slave schedule for Thomas J. Williamson.
32:52It lists his human property, not by name, but by color, gender, and age.
32:58And given what we knew, a single entry stood out.
33:05One black male, age 14.
33:07Bingo.
33:08Yep.
33:09We believe that that 14-year-old boy is your fifth great-grandfather, Howard Williamson.
33:17That's crazy.
33:18What's it like to see that?
33:20It's crazy to see him as a nameless person on a grid.
33:28Mm-hmm.
33:30It's crazy to see him along with four other people, or three other people, like property.
33:35Yeah.
33:35And to know how valuable that property is, because it's a life, and it's not actually
33:43property.
33:43It's a person.
33:44Mm-hmm.
33:45But no name, just a color and an age.
33:50Yeah.
33:50Yeah.
33:51And what sex you are.
33:53Yeah.
33:54Yeah.
33:54That's pretty, like, that's like a reality check of, like, how, you know, the world was
33:59at that time, and even, it didn't stop him from, you know, having a family and producing
34:06a line.
34:07Mm-hmm.
34:07But at that time, they wouldn't have thought of him as anything that could have done anything
34:12good.
34:13No.
34:13Yeah.
34:15Yeah, it's kind of crazy.
34:17Wiz's ancestor would eventually decide that he no longer wanted to live next door to the
34:23man who had owned him.
34:24In the 1870s, Howard moved his family roughly 30 miles away from Thomas to become a tenant
34:33farmer.
34:35But his new life was by no means an easy one.
34:40Each farmer who rents a piece of land from some more affluent person has a hard row to
34:46hoe.
34:47His land will probably produce half a quarter of a bale to the acre down.
34:51Generally, half of this cotton must go to the landlord.
34:55Another generous amount must go for provisions, and that leaves very little for the care of
35:00his stock, for the clothing, and the proper care of his family.
35:03Damn.
35:04What's it like to see that?
35:05It seemed like a lot of hard work for nothing to come from it.
35:09And they're just using the land, saying, oh, we'll rent it to you.
35:17But it's still you working on their land and bringing them what they need.
35:22So it's the exact same thing.
35:24Wiz, I'm going to let you work this land.
35:26Yeah.
35:27And you're going to make everything this profit.
35:29Yeah.
35:29But we're going to subtract a few things before we ascertain the profit.
35:32Yeah.
35:33You know, like half of it goes to me off the top.
35:37Then you ate a lot of pork chops over the last year.
35:40You know, all of that kind of stuff.
35:42Yeah.
35:43So these guys were always in the hole.
35:45Yeah.
35:45Always in the hole.
35:46It was a horrible system.
35:47Yeah.
35:48He's still a slave.
35:51Essentially, Wiz is correct.
35:53The system virtually guaranteed that his ancestor could never gain economic independence, no matter
36:00how hard he worked.
36:03Of course, Howard did have an option to try and change the system.
36:07In the wake of the Civil War, black American men had gained the right to vote.
36:13The only problem?
36:16Exercising that right could be extremely dangerous.
36:19In the Southern states, the Negro, if allowed to vote at all, must either vote the Democratic
36:26ticket or have his vote counted out by a partisan judge of election.
36:31If he is too prominent in electioneering or working for the Republican ticket, he's shot.
36:37Whoa!
36:37White supremacy means everything.
36:40Those words can possibly imply in the South.
36:42The South is solid and will remain so.
36:45White supremacy is assured.
36:46That is the environment in which your fifth great-grandfather had to decide whether or
37:09not he was going to vote.
37:10That's crazy.
37:11In the years following the Civil War, the South was riven by violence against African-Americans
37:19who tried to vote, enabled in part by the rise of white paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux
37:27Klan.
37:28Wiz's ancestor Howard likely thought seriously about staying away from the Poles or leaving
37:35Alabama altogether.
37:37But in the end, he chose a different path.
37:42We, the undersigned registered electors, do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support
37:48and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws
37:53of the state of Alabama, and that I am a qualified elector under the Constitution and
37:58laws of this state.
37:59The names of electors, Howard Williamson, colored.
38:03Your ancestor registered to vote in 1880 in spite of all the racist threats against his
38:10life.
38:11Sweet.
38:12How do you think Howard felt about voting?
38:14Whatever he was, uh, believing in at the time, he was wanting to put it all on the line
38:20for it.
38:20Mm-hmm.
38:21Yeah.
38:21He said, I'm, I'm not a slave anymore.
38:24Absolutely.
38:25One hundred percent.
38:27Voting was not Howard's only legacy.
38:30He left behind at least seven children and 20 grandchildren.
38:35And seeing this part of his tree laid out, connecting Wiz to his enslaved ancestors would prove deeply
38:43moving.
38:46Yeah, I love that.
38:47What do you think they would have made of you?
38:50Your hip-hop singing descendant.
38:53I think they'd be freaking proud.
38:56They'd be proud that I own some stuff for myself.
39:01They'd be proud of the attitude that I carry, the confidence that I have, the love that I
39:08have for my family, the appreciation that I have for what they've done.
39:15And even, I feel all of them around me.
39:19I just don't know who they are.
39:20So now I'm able to say their name.
39:21So that just makes it even, even better.
39:25That's beautiful.
39:25You can say their name.
39:27Yeah.
39:27Their names will never be lost again.
39:29So they're not dead.
39:30They haven't disappeared.
39:32Yeah, absolutely.
39:33We'd already traced Sanaa Lathan's maternal roots, introducing her to an ancestor who'd moved
39:42to Canada and reshaped his family's fortunes.
39:46Now, turning to Sanaa's father's ancestry, we were about to meet a man who'd reshaped his
39:53entire family tree.
39:55The story begins with a 1950 census for Philadelphia, where we found Sanaa's father, as a four-year-old
40:05boy, living with his single mother and older brother, a time of his life that he rarely
40:11discussed.
40:13What's it like to think of your father as a four-year-old?
40:15I don't, I got emotional just now.
40:18Um, it's, it's surreal, because he's always been such a, you know, a serious, you know,
40:28he's the head of the family.
40:29He's a director.
40:31He's, he's in charge.
40:32And so to think of him as like a little.
40:35A vulnerable little boy.
40:36Yeah.
40:37Yeah.
40:38It's emotional.
40:40When this census was recorded, Sanaa's father was being raised by his mother.
40:45Because his father, a man named Stanley Edward Latham, had left the family, and no one knew
40:53where he'd gone.
40:54We found Stanley in the 1950 census for Boston, working in the kitchen of a restaurant, and
41:02living in what was known as the Rufus Dawes Hotel for Men.
41:08Wow.
41:09That's wild.
41:10I mean, it looks like they were workers.
41:12Mm-hmm.
41:13That looks like a place where you come to work.
41:16Well, you're right.
41:17The hotel your grandfather was staying in was something between a boarding house and
41:21a homeless shelter.
41:22Mm.
41:23It provided dormitory facilities at a nominal fee.
41:26Every time he wanted to stay there, he would register for a bed in the evening, then check
41:32out in the morning every day.
41:33Wow.
41:34Likely to go to work at the restaurant, or he was working in the kitchen, and then repeat
41:38the process all over again to keep a roof over his head.
41:42Did you have any idea?
41:44Nothing.
41:45I know nothing.
41:45Of what had happened to your father's father?
41:48No.
41:48I mean, I knew he did struggle with alcoholism, and that's all that my grandmother told me.
41:55Mm-hmm.
41:55But other than that, I didn't know anything.
41:58We now tried to trace Stanley's roots and encountered a mystery even bigger than his
42:04life.
42:05Records show his father was a man named William Edward Latham, and that he was born in North
42:12Carolina in 1880 to a woman named Caroline Latham.
42:17But that's where the paper trail ends.
42:20Despite our best efforts, we could not name William's father.
42:25There was only one hope left, DNA.
42:28So we reached out to Sanaa's father and focused on his Y-DNA, the type of DNA that has passed
42:37virtually intact from father to son across generations, and it led us to a startling discovery.
42:47Sanaa's father's line leads directly to a white man with a surname Sanaa had never heard
42:55before.
42:57Male of likely European ancestry with the surname of Slade.
43:02Slade.
43:03Slade.
43:04S-L-A-D-E?
43:05Mm-hmm.
43:05According to your father's DNA, your father's biological surname, and thus yours, is Slade.
43:13It is not Latham.
43:15I like Latham better.
43:18I like the name.
43:19I like the way it rolls off the tongue.
43:21Sanaa Slade.
43:22Sanaa Slade.
43:23Sorry, Sanaa Slade.
43:24No, I don't know.
43:25It sounds like a stage name, Sanaa Slade.
43:28Maybe that'll be my new alias when I, you know, stay in her cell.
43:32Well, we now knew that William's father was a Slade.
43:37We also knew that he was a white man who had fathered a child with a black woman sometime
43:43around 1880.
43:44But his full name still eluded us.
43:48So we turned back to Sanaa's father's DNA and started looking for matches in publicly available
43:56databases, hoping to find clues that would lead us to the final piece of the puzzle.
44:02And in the end, we got lucky.
44:06Turn the page.
44:09This is so exciting.
44:10Would you please read the names of your great-great-grandparents?
44:14Thomas Bog Slade.
44:18Mm-hmm.
44:19That's none that makes me laugh.
44:21Thomas Bog Slade and Caroline Latham.
44:25What's it like to learn that?
44:27It's amazing.
44:30It's mind-blowing, firstly, that you can get that information from, you know, a...
44:38Spit.
44:39Some spitting into a tube.
44:41I mean, it's fascinating and, you know, it just sparks the imagination.
44:48Yeah.
44:49You know?
44:49Well, let's let your imagination roam a bit.
44:53White man, it's 1880.
44:54Mm-hmm.
44:55Civil War's long gone.
44:57Mm-hmm.
44:57It's 15 years later.
44:58Mm-hmm.
44:59A white man and a black woman.
45:01If it were slavery, you would say, well, the master raped the woman.
45:04Right.
45:04But it's not in slavery.
45:06I don't know.
45:09He was probably good-looking.
45:11Mm-hmm.
45:11Because, you know, all the Lathans are fine.
45:15Um, so maybe, you know, and she probably was too, and they just, you know, I don't know.
45:21It was such a complicated time.
45:23Time.
45:24Right.
45:25So it's hard to romanticize anything, knowing those circumstances.
45:33Yeah.
45:33You know?
45:35There's no way to know the nature of the relationship between Caroline and Thomas.
45:41All we can do is speculate.
45:43And as we looked into Thomas' life, we found something that made our speculations even more complicated.
45:51Confederate Thomas B. Slade, Private Company K, 41 Regiment North Carolina Troops enlisted October 27th, 1861.
46:03Wow.
46:04So there is your great-great-grandfather.
46:07He joined the Confederate Army roughly six months after Fort Sumter and served for at least three years.
46:13So what do you make of this guy?
46:14This is your blood ancestor.
46:16You have DNA from this dude.
46:17Mm-hmm.
46:17He fought to protect the institution of slavery as a young man.
46:21And then 14 years after the end of the Civil War, he fathered a child with a black woman.
46:27My brain is going to be sore tomorrow.
46:30Your family story embodies the complexities of race in the United States in a way that Hollywood movies never even touch.
46:39Yeah.
46:40It's cartoons.
46:41You know, it's all black or all white.
46:42Yeah.
46:43And that's, yeah.
46:45And that's where I feel like we, you know, as, you know, black filmmakers in Hollywood need to go and to, you know, bring the nuance of the black experience.
46:58I mean, this is interesting.
46:59It is.
46:59I want to show you something else about your slayed family.
47:03Mm-hmm.
47:04I'm scared.
47:04A very important element.
47:06Would you please turn the page?
47:06Okay.
47:08Ooh.
47:09See, before you were turning those pages in advance.
47:11I know.
47:11Now I'm like, I don't want to try.
47:13Okay.
47:14We're back to 1860.
47:16This is a year before the Civil War breaks out.
47:18Mm-hmm.
47:19And it's the 1860 census for Williamston, North Carolina, just one year before Thomas enlisted to join the Confederate Army.
47:26Mm-hmm.
47:26Would you please read what we've transcribed for you in that white box?
47:29Penelope Slade, age 48, widow.
47:33Thomas Slade, age 15.
47:35Helen, age 13.
47:37Fanny, age 11.
47:39Richard, age 9.
47:41There's Thomas, your ancestor when he was 15 years old, living with his siblings and his mother.
47:47Mm-hmm.
47:47That lady is your third great grandmother.
47:50Penelope.
47:51Wow.
47:51That white lady is your third great grandmother.
47:53Mm-hmm.
47:53You know, at first, when you're introduced, you think, well, I have one white ancestor.
47:57Got all these white ancestors.
47:58All of his ancestors are your ancestors.
48:02Right.
48:02I guess so, huh?
48:03We now set out to see what we could learn about Penelope.
48:07Penelope.
48:08Records show that she was likely born in North Carolina sometime around 1810.
48:14And by the time the Civil War broke out, she was a widow raising seven children, including
48:22Sanaa's great-great-grandfather, Thomas.
48:26Digging deeper, we saw that Penelope was also a slave owner.
48:31According to the 1860 census, she owned 43 human beings.
48:40I guess it's not all sunshine and roses, right?
48:46No.
48:47That's the eternal optimist in me.
48:49And guess what?
48:50That was a lot of slaves.
48:52That is a lot.
48:53In 1860, only 1% of white families in the United States own 40 slaves or more.
48:59Only 1%.
49:00You know, we talk about the 1%.
49:02Your family was in the 1%.
49:03She was in the 1% of slave masters.
49:06Yes.
49:07What's it like to see this in black and white?
49:10I mean, I'm so layered with so many, like any human being.
49:17And so it's just fascinating to think of all these different people that have kind of contributed
49:25to the soup that I am.
49:28You know, it's like, you know, my mother kind of taught me to pray to, you know, my angels
49:35who are many of our ancestors.
49:38Yeah.
49:38So now, you know, I have more of an idea maybe.
49:43Yeah.
49:43When I do pray.
49:45Well, do me a favor.
49:46When you pray to those Confederates.
49:47I don't know about Penelope.
49:48Send me an email.
49:50I don't know if I'm going to be, you know, praying to.
49:53Dear third great-grandma Penelope, I am your new third great-granda.
49:57Exactly.
49:59How you like me now.
50:00How you like me now, exactly.
50:01The paper trail had now run out for each of my guests.
50:07It was time to show them their full family trees.
50:12Sheesh.
50:13And see what DNA could tell us about their deeper roots.
50:17For Wiz Khalifa, this would yield a surprise, as we tried to match his genetic profile with
50:25that of other guests who'd been in our series, searching for distant cousins Wiz never knew
50:31he had.
50:32And often, there's no match.
50:35Mm-hmm.
50:35But in your case, there is.
50:38Ha.
50:38You have a cousin that you never, ever could have imagined.
50:43Yes.
50:44You ready to meet your DNA cousin?
50:46Yes.
50:46Turn the page.
50:47Oh, yes.
50:51Oh, for real?
50:52Ava DuVernay.
50:53Christ.
50:54Ava DuVernay is your DNA cousin.
50:57What up, cuz?
50:59Wiz's mother shares a long, identical segment of her X chromosome with the Emmy Award-winning
51:06director Ava DuVernay, meaning that the two have a common ancestor somewhere in the branches
51:13of their family trees.
51:16Well, everybody, now y'all know me and Ava are cousins.
51:19Yeah.
51:20Isn't that amazing?
51:21Yeah.
51:22She's a brilliant filmmaker.
51:23She's really, really good.
51:25That's awesome, bro.
51:26Sanaa Lathan was in for a surprise of her own.
51:32Oh!
51:33Oh, my goodness.
51:34We discovered that Sanaa shares a long, identical segment of her 14th chromosome with the renowned
51:44actor Sterling K. Brown.
51:48I love it.
51:49Have you two ever worked together?
51:50No, but we actually did some charity work together.
51:53Oh.
51:53And I know him and his wife, and they're wonderful people, and obviously he's so gifted as an actor.
51:58Well, when you have your family reunion, you have an additional birthday.
52:02I love it.
52:04That's the end of our journey with Sanaa Lathan and Wiz Khalifa.
52:10Join me next time when we unlock the secrets of the past for new guests on another episode
52:17of Finding Your Roots.
52:19Finding Your Roots
52:19Finding Your Roots
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