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00:15I'm Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
00:18Welcome to Finding Your Roots.
00:21In this episode, we'll meet Broadway superstar Kristen Chenoweth
00:26and iconic filmmaker Spike Lee.
00:30Two people who are known all over the world,
00:33yet know nothing about their own family trees.
00:37I want to know, was I from, like, a long line of, like, fighters, warriors?
00:44Who am I?
00:46I've been thinking all last night.
00:48What will I find out today?
00:50What's going out the box?
00:53To uncover their roots, we've used every tool available.
00:57Genealogists comb through paper trails stretching back hundreds of years.
01:02Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.
01:04While DNA experts utilize the latest advances in genetic analysis
01:09to reveal secrets that have lain hidden for generations.
01:12I know none of this.
01:14And we've compiled it all into a book of life, a record of everything we found.
01:25You got this?
01:28Oh, thank you.
01:29And the window to the hidden past.
01:32Is that not freaky?
01:33That's freaky.
01:34That's nuts.
01:35I mean, that's why I'm here.
01:37I want to learn about my family, my heritage, my ancestors.
01:41I'm so happy right now, you don't even know.
01:45This, like, actually makes me so emotional.
01:48My guests are both independent spirits.
01:52Artists who blaze their own trails.
01:55And they are both in for some big surprises.
02:00In this episode, they're going to meet a cast of characters
02:04every bit as dramatic as the ones they brought to life on stage and screen.
02:10All hidden in the branches of their family trees.
02:16The End
02:17The End
02:17The End
02:33The End
03:01Spike Lee is a living legend.
03:04Over the past four decades, the prolific director has forever changed American cinema, working in a dizzying array of genres
03:13and styles, creating some of the most original films ever made.
03:19But as anyone who knows Spike is aware, the key to it all is simple. Spike is a proud product
03:27of his city and his family.
03:31Born in Georgia in 1957, Spike grew up in Brooklyn, the oldest of five children.
03:38His father was a celebrated jazz musician who sometimes struggled to earn a living.
03:44His mother, a beloved teacher, worked hard to fill in the gaps.
03:49And Spike was a keen observer of the creative cauldron of chaos that often defined his household.
03:58We were crazy.
04:01I mean, my father was like, Daddy, can we jump off the top of the stoop?
04:08Yeah, go ahead.
04:09So that was my father.
04:10He was like, whatever you want to do.
04:12And so my mother, she was put in a position of being...
04:16A policeman.
04:16Yes, because whatever you want to do, my father didn't care.
04:20I mean, he cared, but he would express himself.
04:22Well, you know, you break an arm, you know, you'll be all right.
04:25Was she effective as a cop?
04:27Oh, yeah.
04:28We were like, when is Daddy coming home?
04:34And I know that must have hurt her, that for the most part, you know, her children, you know, Daddy
04:43was like...
04:46I don't remember ever saying, when is Mommy coming home?
04:49Though Spike adored his father, he didn't try to follow in his footsteps.
04:53In fact, he told me he wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life until the summer of
04:591977,
05:01when he returned from college to find his home city in turmoil,
05:06roiled by a financial crisis with a citywide blackout looming.
05:11It was an infamous time in New York's history, and a defining time for Spike.
05:19There were no jobs, so I had nothing to do, and this one day changed my life.
05:24Vietta Johnson, who lived across the street of the park, Fort Green Park,
05:30went to Stuyvesant High School, now she's a doctor in Chicago.
05:35She was a friend.
05:39And that day, I wasn't doing nothing.
05:41I said, I went over to cross the park, rang the bell, said, come on up.
05:46So I'm sitting there, and she's studying for some type of test.
05:49And I said, what's in that box?
05:51She said, it's a Super 8 camera.
05:54I said, what's in this box?
05:56She said, that's the cartridge for the film.
05:59You can have it.
06:02So who gave it to you?
06:03My father gave it to me, buddy.
06:05Yeah, you just take it.
06:07And that day changed my life.
06:10And so when the blackout happened, I was 77.
06:15Blacks, my brothers and sisters, my Puerto Rican brothers and sisters started looting.
06:22I started filming it.
06:24It was also the first summer of disco, and so I was filming the block parties.
06:31I said, all this footage I shot this summer, went back to school, the fall, and declared my major.
06:40Mass communications film.
06:41And you had never thought about being a filmmaker before?
06:44I like films, but that never occurred to me.
06:47But you picked this thing up.
06:49How did you figure out how to use it?
06:50Super 8 camera, just put the carcass in there, pull the trigger.
06:58Once he pulled that trigger, Spike never looked back.
07:02His graduate school thesis film won a Student Academy Award.
07:06His first feature was a breakout hit.
07:09And he's gone on to direct more than 25 movies, 5 documentaries, and a series of iconic commercials.
07:18Winning virtually every major award along the way.
07:23But when I laid out all of his accomplishments in front of him, Spike turned the conversation back to where
07:30it began.
07:31With the joy that he takes from his life.
07:35Looking back at that incredible career.
07:38I'm not done.
07:39I know.
07:40But just looking back from where you are.
07:42What are you proud of, son?
07:44My problem?
07:45Yeah.
07:51That I tell this to my students.
07:54That people who are blessed making a living doing what they love, you can't beat that.
08:06The majority of the people on this earth, this guy's earth, go to their grave, haven't worked a job they're
08:10hating.
08:12So if you, if you could make a living doing what you love, you won.
08:18You won.
08:20My second guest is actor, singer, and Broadway superstar, Kristen Chenoweth.
08:28Famed for her groundbreaking performance as Glinda, the Good Witch of Oz, in the smash hit Wicked.
08:36Kristen is blessed with perfect pitch, a radiant smile, and a story that sounds like its own Broadway show.
08:47As an infant, she was adopted by an Oklahoma couple named Junie and Jerry Chenoweth.
08:53They were engineers with no musical interest at all, but they embraced Kristen's talents from the moment they emerged.
09:04It started for me in church.
09:06Mm-hmm.
09:07I auditioned for a solo in the adult choir.
09:09My mom said, it's for the adults.
09:10I said, I don't care.
09:11I still wanted to try out.
09:12And I went to a pretty big church.
09:15First Baptist Church, Broken Arrow, was pretty big at the time.
09:17Mm-hmm.
09:17And I got the solo, and I remember going up in front of the crowd and singing a song called,
09:24I'm only four foot eleven, but I'm going to heaven, and it makes me feel ten feet tall.
09:30If I'd only known that's how tall I was going to grow, Skip, I probably wouldn't have sang that song.
09:34But after it was over, people leapt to their feet and cheered.
09:41And I thought, and we were a pretty calm congregation, and I remember thinking, I like that.
09:48Kristen didn't know it yet, but she'd found her calling, though there would be a few twists in the road
09:54ahead.
09:55After spending her high school years immersed in musical theater, she went to Oklahoma City University
10:01and ended up with a scholarship to train as an opera singer at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in
10:08Philadelphia.
10:10And that's when things took a major turn.
10:14Just before my program started and we'd graduated, my best friend Denny Downs was moving to New York to try
10:20his hat at Broadway the whole life, right?
10:24Well, that's really always what I wanted to do.
10:27But I was succeeding in operas, so I thought, well, I should do it.
10:31Because the teachers and so many guest teachers would come and say, you actually fit the roles.
10:38You're little.
10:39You know, you look like a doll.
10:40You will play the doll.
10:42You will, you know, you fit the parts.
10:44Right.
10:44Anyway, I went to New York with Denny.
10:46I decided just for fun to sign up at the Actors' Equity Building for an audition.
10:52Just for fun.
10:53Just for fun.
10:53Uh-huh.
10:54I had never, I did not have my equity card, so I waited 12 hours to the end of the
10:58day.
10:58And the guy came out and goes, oh, you're still here.
11:02I said, yeah.
11:02And he goes, I'll see what I can do.
11:04Because I wasn't a union member.
11:06They were auditioning for a show called Animal Crackers.
11:08It was to be done at Paper Mill Playhouse.
11:10It was a Marx Brothers musical.
11:12And they'd been auditioning for this one part for many, many months.
11:16So I walk in, and I sang on the other side of the tracks to show that I could belt.
11:20Then they asked me to read a little scene, and they said, what are you doing?
11:25Who are you?
11:26And I said, well, actually, I'm going to go to AVA.
11:28I'm just here to experience a New York audition.
11:30And Charlie Reppley, the director, who I will never, never forget him, sat me down, and he said, I know
11:36you're going to do this other thing, but you're very unique in a world where there's not a lot of
11:42uniqueness.
11:42Mm-hmm.
11:43I would really like for you to take this part.
11:46Kristen heeded that advice and accepted the role, a decision that paid off spectacularly, launching one of the most acclaimed
11:54careers in the history of musical theater.
11:57Along the way, Kristen has also been able to add a happy chapter to her personal story.
12:05In 2012, she met her birth mother for the first time, and the two forged a close bond, a loving
12:14relationship that lasted right up until her mother's death in 2023.
12:21How did getting to know her change you?
12:25Oh, man.
12:26Everything made sense.
12:30It's a powerful thing to know in this world that you are like someone.
12:36Mm-hmm.
12:37You know, even when you look at entertainers that you relate to, why do you relate to certain people?
12:42Because there's something about them, usually I find, that's sort of like you or that you can relate to.
12:48Mm-hmm.
12:49When I met her, and it was like, oh, my gosh, looking into my future, like, that's me.
12:56Huh.
12:56That's me.
12:57And your bond was immediate?
12:59Immediate.
13:00Hmm.
13:00There was no, that could have gone either way, right?
13:02Yeah, oh, yeah.
13:03But not with us.
13:05What do you miss most about her?
13:07You know, sometimes I've made decisions in my life that seem a little, are you sure you want to do
13:14that, Christy, or what are you thinking over here, Christy?
13:17Yeah.
13:17Yeah.
13:18She completely, um, accepted me for all the rights and wrongs.
13:26Mm-hmm.
13:27Unconditional love.
13:28Yeah, that's it.
13:29Yeah.
13:34Kristen and Spike are both self-creations.
13:36They rose to the top on their talents alone, never knowing what their ancestors might have done to blaze the
13:44trail before them.
13:46But that is about to change.
13:50I started with Spike Lee and with his father, Bill Lee.
13:57Bill was a brilliant artist who struggled to support his family for the most artistic of reasons.
14:04In the 1960s, at the height of his fame, he refused to change as the music world changed around him.
14:13My father was the most requested jazz folk bassist.
14:18Bob Dylan, I mean, Dito McKellar, Josh Roy, I mean, every folk artist.
14:26He's on the first album, the first Simon Garfunkel album, that's him.
14:30The first Gordon Lightfoot album, that's my father playing.
14:32I didn't know that.
14:33Yeah, and when Bob Dylan decided he's going electric, my father said, no.
14:39It's when Bob Dylan went electric, everybody went electric.
14:42So my father was not going to play electric bass.
14:44Wow.
14:45He said, I can't do it.
14:46So my mother had to work because we would have starved.
14:52Spike's father would go on to score some of Spike's early films and compose several well-received jazz operas.
14:59But he never regained the popularity of his youth.
15:03And perhaps as a result, he rarely chose to discuss his past.
15:08So Spike knew that his father came from a musical family.
15:11But beyond that, his father's family tree was a blank slate.
15:16We set out to fill it in and immediately uncovered a surprise.
15:22The story begins with Spike's grandfather, a man named Arnold Lee.
15:29Arnold was born in Selma, Alabama in 1892.
15:33He worked much of his life as a college instructor and band leader.
15:38But he also ran a family singing group that performed across the South, a group that included Spike's father.
15:48One family musical performance by Neagle's represented at the Selma University Chapel at 8 o'clock Monday evening.
15:55Seats reserved for white friends wishing to attend.
15:59The troupe had appeared before numerous groups in the past.
16:02Isn't that wild?
16:03Have you ever seen that before?
16:05The sound of music of the Trap family.
16:09Solo, the well, the do-do-do-do-do.
16:12They weren't doing that.
16:14They weren't doing Oscar Hammerstein.
16:16No.
16:17There is your grandfather leading the family band in a performance at the Selma University Chapel.
16:23Your father would have been 11 years old at the time.
16:27Did your dad ever talk about those shows?
16:30Skip, I didn't know that.
16:31I mean, that's why I'm here.
16:33I want to learn about my family, my heritage, my ancestors.
16:37Thank you for sharing this with me.
16:39And the world, too.
16:40You've come to the right place.
16:41Yeah, I know that.
16:43Spike wondered how Arnold ended up as a band leader.
16:47The answer seems to be that, just like Spike, he followed his dreams.
16:53His father was a carpenter.
16:55And for a time, it appeared that Arnold, too, was destined for a life of labor.
17:02Arnold Wordsworth Lee, age 24.
17:05Date of birth, October 28, 1892.
17:09What was your present occupation?
17:11Steam engineer by whom employed Buckeye Counting Oil Company.
17:16There's your grandfather, 24 years old, working as a steam engineer at a factory.
17:21Though he's a musician.
17:22Yeah.
17:23And that was a rough job.
17:25As a steam engineer, he operated machinery to process cotton seeds into cottonseed oil,
17:31a popular ingredient used in supermarket fats and soap.
17:35He was essentially working on a factory floor, hot, humid, and loud.
17:40You think you could have handled that for a living?
17:42Mm-mm.
17:43You know, and also, you work from sunup to sundown, too.
17:48Oh, yeah.
17:50But he quit this job to follow his passion, which was music.
17:55Damn!
17:57Isn't that amazing?
18:00We wanted to trace the Lee family back in time.
18:03And we were able to identify Arnold's grandfather, who was likely born into slavery around 1825.
18:11But we couldn't go any further.
18:14Enslaved people were almost never listed by name in federal records.
18:19So to learn their stories, we need to find them in the records of the people who owned them.
18:24And we weren't able to do that for the Lees.
18:28But when we shifted to another line on Spike's father's family tree, our fortune seemed to change.
18:37Spike's third-grade grandparents, a couple named Albert and Mariah Craig, were living in Dallas County, Alabama after the Civil
18:46War, as was their son, Harrison Craig.
18:50And in the 1850 census for that county, we found a white slave owner named John J. Craig.
18:58The shared surnames were impossible to ignore.
19:04So we kept looking through the records of this white Craig family.
19:08Because the only way to trace black genealogy is to find the names of your ancestors listed in their documents.
19:18By the people enslaved, right?
19:20Yes.
19:21Like state records, in wills, whatever.
19:24Sometimes we get lucky, sometimes not.
19:26We get lucky?
19:27Please turn the page.
19:30You're looking at a file for the estate of a man named James Craig.
19:34He was John J. Craig's father.
19:37It was recorded on January 3rd, 1844.
19:41Would you please read the transcribe section?
19:43We, the undersigned, met this day and proceeded to appraise said Negroes.
19:47We then proceeded to put them into lots.
19:50We were drawn for as follows.
19:52Lot number one, Albert at $650.
19:56Mariah and child, $575.
19:59Total $1,225.
20:04Lot number five, Harrison at $200 drawn by J.D. Craig.
20:10There you go.
20:11Those are your third great-grandparents listed by name.
20:15Mm.
20:17With a valuation placed on.
20:23$650, $500.
20:24Yeah.
20:25$575.
20:27Yeah.
20:27$1,225.
20:29And Harrison.
20:31$200.
20:32At the cheap price of $200.
20:34$200.
20:35Our human life, $200.
20:38That is your bloodline.
20:39What's it like to see that?
20:41It's amazing.
20:42And when you think about it, when you think about your ancestors, you think you're going through problems.
20:49And I've done this before.
20:50I said, what?
20:51And I got like, I hit myself in the head like, this ain't nothing.
20:54Nothing.
20:56This is light stuff compared to what ancestors went through.
20:59Yeah.
20:59Holy living hell.
21:02Looking closer at the records that the white Craig family left behind, we soon realized just how much hell Spike's
21:11ancestors had endured.
21:13When James Craig died, Spike's third great-grandparents became the property of his son.
21:20But their son, Spike's great-great-grandfather Harrison, was inherited by another Craig relative.
21:29That is the moment that your Craig family line was split apart by slavery.
21:36What's it like to see that?
21:39Well, you know, you think in your mind, you know what your ancestors went through, but this just makes it
21:47more.
21:48I mean, this is real right here.
21:50This is not like conjecture.
21:51This happened.
21:52And this is how our ancestors, not just my ancestors, but our ancestors were.
21:56We're treated as a piece of property, inhuman, and can be killed, discarded, raped, whatever, you know, and nothing's going
22:07to happen.
22:08Spike, of course, is correct.
22:11Enslaved people had absolutely no control over their lives.
22:15And there was an added dimension to their torment.
22:18They had no idea that their enslavement would ever come to an end.
22:25Albert and Mariah and Harrison could not imagine if they'd ever be free or be together again.
22:33But you know what, though?
22:36I think they knew.
22:38They believed in God.
22:40And they'd be like, may not be me or my children, but somewhere down the line.
22:47Mm-hmm.
22:49A better day's coming.
22:50Better day's coming.
22:51Yeah.
22:51Please turn the page.
22:55This is a year after the Civil War, 1866, Dallas County, Alabama.
23:01Would you please read that transcribed section?
23:04Albert Craig, one male 50 to 60 years old, one female 10 to 20 years old, one female 40 to
23:1250 years old.
23:13That is your third great-grandfather, Albert, as a free man.
23:18He's head of a household, most likely including his wife, your third great-grandmother, Mariah,
23:25and their son, your great-great-grandfather, Harrison, was living with his wife on another property in the same county.
23:33So they survived, and they kept their family together.
23:38Religion, spirituality, you know, you had to believe that someday,
23:45maybe not themselves, but their children or grandchildren, that we'd be treated as human beings.
23:53Spike's words would prove prophetic.
23:56Freedom transformed his family.
23:59Within just two generations, the Craigs would see their horizons expand dramatically
24:06as Harrison's daughter, Alma, gave birth to Spike's bandleader grandfather, Arnold,
24:13the man who laid the groundwork for Spike's father's success as well as his own,
24:19a fact that was not lost on Spike.
24:23I had a whole lot of people behind me.
24:26Yeah.
24:27Looking down at me and saying, like, come on now.
24:30Come on now.
24:31What we went through, you know, come on, let's keep it going.
24:34Let's keep it going.
24:35Let's keep this family, this generational thing, and let's strive to make a positive mark in the world.
24:44Mm-hmm.
24:45You know, and so it's empowering to know that it's not just you.
24:50You know, there's some people here.
24:51You got relatives.
24:52Yeah.
24:53Generations that paved the way.
24:56Right.
24:57By name now.
24:59Yeah, so it's not no flim-flam.
25:03This is like documented.
25:08Much like Spike, Kristen Chenoweth was about to find empowerment in a newfound branch of her family tree.
25:16The journey began with her biological mother, Wanda Lynn Cooper.
25:21When Kristen and Wanda reconnected, it was largely thanks to the efforts of Wanda's youngest daughter, Kristen's sister, Jennifer.
25:32But there was another person who played a significant role in that effort.
25:36A man Kristen never got the chance to meet.
25:40Wanda's father, Kristen's grandfather, Charles Cooper.
25:46Now, I understand when your grandfather was on his deathbed, he told your sister, Jennifer, about you being given up
25:53for adoption, which led her to register her DNA in an adoption database.
26:00So, in a sense, he's the reason that you ended up here with me today.
26:05Yeah.
26:06So, what's it like to think about that?
26:07You know what's funny?
26:08I've never thought about the connection with him.
26:10I've only just thought about her and my sister, my brother.
26:14You know what?
26:14I've never thought about Grandpa.
26:16But he made that decision on his deathbed.
26:18I find that fascinating.
26:19I do, too.
26:20I wonder, I mean, I've always wondered if he felt guilty about it or just sad.
26:25You know, wondering about that baby.
26:28As it turns out, Charles had many reasons to be sympathetic to his granddaughter.
26:35He'd experienced great suffering of his own.
26:39He lost his mother when he was a young man.
26:42And when he was 21 years old, he almost lost his own life.
26:48The accident occurred last Saturday near Natchez and the youth suffered six broken ribs.
26:53Ow.
26:54Internal injuries and a punctured lung.
26:58Two blood transfusions have been given in an effort to bring him back to health.
27:01Wait.
27:02I didn't know that he'd had a bad accident.
27:05Your grandfather was in a terrible car accident.
27:07He had six broken ribs, internal injuries, and a punctured lung.
27:11Lucky to be here.
27:11And two blood transfusions.
27:13Can you imagine?
27:17Unfortunately, I can imagine.
27:19I've had a bad accident myself.
27:22Broken ribs alone will take you down.
27:24I mean, it doesn't sound like that big of a deal.
27:27Oh, it's a big deal.
27:28They hurt.
27:28According to another newspaper article, Charles was lucky to be alive, and he had to struggle to recover.
27:35But he ended up back home, walking around in a month.
27:38Sounds like a tough guy.
27:40Yeah, tough.
27:41Is that how your mom remembered him?
27:43Yes.
27:44Big teddy bear.
27:45But outwardly, maybe, tough.
27:49Charles' toughness would soon be put to another test.
27:54Roughly four months after his accident, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into World War II.
28:03Charles could have tried to avoid military service on medical grounds.
28:07But he chose a different route.
28:11Cooper, Charlie E. Private, automotive maintenance company.
28:14Your grandfather was drafted.
28:16He sure was.
28:17He survives a car accident and still answers the call to serve his country.
28:22What do you make of that?
28:23I think he's pretty badass, pardon me.
28:25I think that's pretty cool that he, you know, I would imagine that a lot of people could have chosen
28:31not to do it.
28:32Sure.
28:32But he did it anyway.
28:34Charles was assigned to an Army Ordnance Corps and ended up in France, maintaining equipment for frontline troops.
28:43Kristen told me that she believes the experience took an emotional toll on him, a toll that her mother, Wanda,
28:50observed firsthand.
28:52And as it turns out, Charles was not the first member of Kristen's family to face such challenges.
29:00Shifting to another branch of her mother's roots, we came to a man named Oscar McKinley Brown.
29:07He's Kristen's great-grandfather.
29:10And in 1917, when he was 24 years old, he joined the United States Army at the height of World
29:18War I.
29:20Now, we found this record in the National Archives.
29:23Would you please read the transcribe section over there?
29:26Look how handsome he was.
29:29Passenger list, ah, fourth sanitary train, date of sailing, May 27, 1918, Port, New York, New York, name, Oscar McKinley
29:41Brown, rank, medical department, Wagoneer.
29:45Notify, in case of emergency, Mrs. Leslie Webb, sister, address, Quentin, Oklahoma.
29:52In 1917, when he was 24, Oscar enlisted, and you could see Oscar there in his uniform.
29:58Any family resemblance?
30:00Yeah, the eyes, for sure.
30:03Very similar.
30:04Your great-grandfather was assigned to the fourth sanitary train of the 4th Infantry Division.
30:10Do you have any idea what a sanitary train is?
30:12No, what is that?
30:14Please turn the page.
30:15I think it might not be something I would want to do.
30:17I was thinking that.
30:18Oh, wow.
30:20Sanitary trains were medical units that operated field hospitals in combat zones.
30:27Oscar's job was to transport supplies and wounded soldiers along the trenches of the Western Front.
30:35It was dangerous, often deadly work, as evidenced by an account written by a fellow soldier in Oscar's unit.
30:45One of our boys was at the dressing station helping a lieutenant dress up a wound when a shell hit
30:51the dugout, killing them both.
30:53Once the Germans let a bomb fall just outside our hospital, it sure got the chateau next door and smashed
30:58all the windows in our hospital.
31:00The air raid was the worst.
31:03You can hear the plane ride over you, and you know it has death load for someone.
31:06And you just lay there and wonder, will it fall?
31:09That is what your ancestry experienced.
31:12The stress.
31:13The not knowing whether you're going to make it.
31:15You're in the line, truly the line of fire.
31:18Truly.
31:19Yeah, 24-7.
31:20No respite.
31:21No, thank you.
31:22So what do you think that was like for him to witness that carnage?
31:25I mean, now we always talk about our trauma, right, in today's times.
31:28Oh, yeah.
31:29This is serious trauma.
31:30This is serious trauma.
31:31Um, and that...
31:33Without even having a word for it.
31:36Right.
31:36You know, which makes it worse.
31:38Yeah, and I mean, he probably put it down here.
31:41Yeah, as best he could.
31:42As best he could.
31:43We don't know how he did it, but Oscar was able to leave the war behind him.
31:49In 1919, he returned to America and set out to build a life for himself.
31:54The following year, he married Kristen's great-grandmother, a woman named Ola Blaylock, and started a family.
32:02He would help raise three children, and support them by running a taxi service, and later, a farm.
32:10Surveying his life, Kristen's thoughts turned first to her mother, Oscar's granddaughter.
32:17When I think of Mama Lynn, I think about her resilience.
32:20That's really what stands out the most to me.
32:22Mm-hmm.
32:25Because of the trauma, if I may, that she went through of having me and giving me away.
32:30Oh, yeah.
32:30Um, but continuing on.
32:33Mm-hmm.
32:34And staying tough.
32:35Mm-hmm.
32:35And life did hand her a lot of lemons.
32:38Mm-hmm.
32:39But she made lemonade out of it.
32:41Yeah.
32:41And so did this guy.
32:43Mm-hmm.
32:43It's funny.
32:44I have this, too.
32:45People don't always see me coming.
32:46Mm-hmm.
32:47They just don't know that I'm this tough.
32:50Mm-hmm.
32:51But when push comes to it.
32:52Mm-hmm.
32:53I'm pretty tough.
32:56We'd already traced Spike Lee's father's roots in Alabama, exploring a family that ended up as a musical group.
33:05Now, turning to Spike's mother's ancestry, we found ourselves back in the Deep South with a very different kind of
33:12family.
33:13The story begins with Spike's great-great-grandparents, Richard and Mary Pascal.
33:20They're listed in the 1880 census for Georgia, along with their seven children.
33:27And almost all of them had the same job.
33:33Henry, age 16, son, occupation, farmhand.
33:36Felix, age 14, son, occupation, farmhand.
33:40Ida, age 11, daughter, occupation, farmhand.
33:43Birch, age 9, daughter.
33:45Will, age 7, son.
33:47Jack, age 5, son.
33:49Jerry, age 3, son.
33:52So you worked.
33:53As soon as you could walk.
33:54You got it.
33:55You're working.
33:56Farmhand.
33:57Yeah.
33:57That's why they had big families.
33:58Mm-hmm.
33:59So they're your great-great-grandparents, right?
34:00That ain't the only reason.
34:03Yeah, well, there was no movie.
34:05Nothing was streaming.
34:07They're your great-great-grandparents, Richard and Mary Pascal, living with their children.
34:12And as you could see, they were working on a farm.
34:1511-year-old working.
34:17Think back when you were 11.
34:19How much cotton can you plant and pick and clean?
34:22Not much.
34:24We estimate that Richard and Mary were both born in Georgia sometime in the 1830s.
34:30So they were both almost certainly born into slavery.
34:35And when we set out to see if we could learn about their lives before emancipation, we kept
34:41hitting the same brick wall we'd hit with Spike's father's ancestors.
34:46Like all enslaved people, their names were almost never recorded in federal records.
34:53But then, one of our researchers noticed something unusual.
34:58In the years following the Civil War, Richard Pascal also went by the name Richard Wellborn.
35:06He used two surnames more or less interchangeably.
35:11He said, I'm free.
35:12I'm going to name myself.
35:14And some days he woke up.
35:15He was Richard Pascal.
35:17He sounds like a Lee.
35:20Isn't that amazing?
35:21Mm-hmm.
35:22So we don't see this often.
35:23And at first, it was hard for us to understand and track.
35:26But there are multiple records listing your great-great-grandfather by both names.
35:31Both names, huh?
35:31At various times in the 1870s and the 1880s.
35:35And we know it's him.
35:36Because as you could see, the names and ages of his children all remain the same.
35:42So you've never heard any stories about these people?
35:44I've never heard.
35:45I mean, a lot of stuff skipped.
35:49This is like all new.
35:51Mm-hmm.
35:52All new.
35:55Spike was about to learn much more that was new.
35:58But some of it would prove painful.
36:02Discovering that Richard used the surname Wellborn led us to a white Georgia planter named Abner Wellborn.
36:09When he passed away in 1842, Abner owned 72 human beings.
36:16And his estate records assigned a name and a dollar value to each of them.
36:22We had this day proceed to make said division.
36:25To Miss Martha Wellborn, we've allotted and assigned Negroes, Harriet and five children,
36:31Mertes, Richard, Polina, Martha, George, value.
36:35Let me see.
36:38Five children valued at $1,600.
36:42There's your great-great-grandfather, Richard, part of Abner Wellborn's estate alongside his four siblings and their mother.
36:52You just met your great-great-great-grandmother, Harriet.
36:56And that's your family listed together as property in the estate of that white man.
37:01Human being is property.
37:02Human being is property.
37:04After Abner's death, they were inherited by his daughter, Martha Wellborn.
37:10Like an heirloom, man.
37:12Oh, you get the piano.
37:13Or old coat.
37:15Yeah.
37:16In 1847, three years after that record, Martha Wellborn married a man named Lodowick Meriwether Hill,
37:23who was a prominent plantation owner.
37:26I don't like him already, that name.
37:28Please turn the page.
37:33That is the main house at Lodowick Meriwether Hills Plantation in Wilkes County, Georgia.
37:40Ooh, Lord.
37:41Your ancestors saw that house every day of their lives.
37:46That was the big house.
37:48Spike, he owned 7,000 acres of land.
37:527,000?
37:537,000.
37:54It's all cotton.
37:55Produced a variety of crops, including cotton.
37:58Because cotton was money.
38:00High cotton.
38:01Did you ever imagine you'd see a picture of the big house on a plantation where your family was enslaved?
38:10Nunca.
38:11Never.
38:14Lodowick Hill was a significant figure in his day, a wealthy farmer and businessman who left a substantial legacy behind.
38:24Combing through it, we were not only able to give Spike a glimpse of his plantation, we were also able
38:31to show Spike his face.
38:36Oh, man.
38:39That is the man who owned your ancestors.
38:43So not only do you...
38:44He looks evil.
38:45Yeah.
38:46What's it like to see that?
38:47What are you feeling when you look at that?
38:50That's evil, man.
38:51Mm.
38:51This lady was evil.
38:55I mean, he just, he just, I don't think this guy's capable of a smile.
39:00Mm.
39:02We believe that Lodowick Hill held Spike's family in bondage for roughly 18 years, and that wasn't the end of
39:11their ordeal.
39:12When freedom finally came, white Southerners were determined to suppress the rights of the formerly enslaved, and willing to use
39:22violence to achieve those goals.
39:26Paramilitary groups like the Ku Klux Klan emerged almost immediately after the Civil War ended to terrorize African Americans.
39:36But Spike's great-great-grandfather was not a man to be intimidated.
39:42The state of Georgia, county of Wilkes, personally appeared on the fifth day of August, 1867.
39:48Richard Pascal, who makes oath as follows.
39:50I, Richard Pascal, do solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God that I am a citizen of the state
39:55of Georgia, and that I have resided in the said state for 12 months, and now reside in the county
39:59of Wilkes in the said state.
40:00I will faithfully support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States, and do the best of my
40:05ability to encourage others to do so.
40:06So help me God, Richard Pascal, your ancestor registered to vote.
40:14As soon as he could.
40:16Heroic.
40:16Mm-hmm.
40:17I mean, he's doing something new.
40:19There was going to be some, uh, be killed.
40:23Mm-hmm.
40:23Family killed.
40:25Burned off the land.
40:26You know, just, he knew there was consequences of his action, but he had to do, I don't want to
40:32say do right.
40:32I'm just saying that he had to do what he had to do and knew he was just.
40:36Yeah.
40:36And he knew that.
40:40Had to do that for his children.
40:41Mm-hmm.
40:42Had to do that for generations.
40:45For me.
40:46That's right.
40:47My, my, my sisters, my, my sister, my siblings.
40:51For us to do it, he can't even, somewhere it's like this, somewhere down the line, I don't know how
40:58long it's going to be, this is going to make an impact.
41:02That's right.
41:02So he's looking forward.
41:04We'd already traced Kristen Chenoweth's biological mother's roots, uncovering a tradition of toughness and bravery.
41:14Now, turning to Kristen's biological father, we encountered a very different kind of tradition, one of creativity.
41:24Kristen's father, a man named Billy Etheridge, was a talented musician who played with a chess man, a seminal rock
41:32band.
41:32But Kristen had no idea that she and Billy had an even deeper connection, until we showed her a newspaper
41:40clipping from his childhood.
41:44The junior players' guild stage production of The Wizard of Oz, opening at 8 p.m. Friday in the Great
41:53Hall of St. Matthew's Cathedral.
41:55The cast for The Wizard is as follows, Oz, Billy Eugene Etheridge, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?
42:04Oh my gosh, is that not freaky?
42:07That's freaky.
42:11That's nuts.
42:13The Wizard of Oz?
42:16Wow.
42:20Well, we were a lot alike.
42:22And that's not your only connection. Growing up, Billy was in musical productions of The King and I, a Connecticut
42:28Yankee and King Arthur's Court, and he also participated in a dance review, a music club, and the school choir.
42:37You know, I think of Billy as a rockabilly, I mean, he was an incredible guitarist, and also pianist, but
42:47I don't think of him as this music theater kid.
42:49Yeah.
42:50But he was.
42:50But he was.
42:51That makes you believe in fate.
42:53Right?
42:54Yeah.
42:54Right there.
42:56Oh, I wish he was alive so I could just be like, look at this.
43:00As it turns out, Billy was not the only creative spirit in Kristen's newfound family tree.
43:08Moving back along his mother's line, we came to another, Kristen's third great-grandfather, a man named Peter Delbrell.
43:18Peter passed away in Texas in 1859, just a few hundred miles from where Kristen was born.
43:25But as we looked into Peter's life, we found ourselves in an unexpected place, the archives of Bordeaux, France.
43:35January 23rd, 1811, appeared Mr. Francois Delbrell, who presented an infant of the masculine sex born the morning before at
43:45six o'clock to the declarant and to Anne Coste,
43:50his wife, and to whom he gives the forename of Pierre.
43:55You just read your third great-grandfather's birth record from France.
44:00Did you know you had French roots?
44:02No, I didn't.
44:04I assume you've been to France.
44:05I sang at the Paris Opera.
44:06I love France.
44:08That's probably my best language.
44:10Well.
44:11Foreign language.
44:12It comes natural.
44:12Yeah.
44:13It's in my DNA.
44:14It's in your DNA.
44:15That's crazy.
44:16According to this record, Peter's father was a barrel maker.
44:20It was an ancient occupation and crucial to the economy of Bordeaux.
44:26But it was also back-breaking work, and it seems that Peter wanted more for himself.
44:32So rather than take up his father's trade, he boarded a ship.
44:39So, Peter got to America.
44:41Let's see how he got there.
44:42Okay.
44:43Wow.
44:43Please turn the page.
44:44Wow, wow, wow.
44:46This is so cool.
44:47Oh, gosh.
44:48Now, there are no records, because Ellis Island wouldn't open until 1891, but he arrived sometime
44:54in the 1830s, and this is the kind of ship that he'd likely sailed on.
45:00Oh, my gosh.
45:01It would have held around 200 people, almost all of them immigrants.
45:05The trip would have taken about six weeks, and there would have been no running water and
45:10no sanitation facilities.
45:13Are you sure we're related?
45:14I wouldn't be able to handle it.
45:16I wouldn't be able to handle it.
45:16Man, I often think that.
45:18Whoa.
45:19I bet you could smell that ship.
45:22They knew it was coming.
45:23Peter arrived in America sometime in the 1830s, when he was in his 20s.
45:31By 1838, he'd settled in Texas, which at the time was an independent nation, not yet part
45:39of the United States.
45:42Texas offered opportunities that Peter never could have found back in France, but it was
45:48also an unstable and sometimes a violent place.
45:53So what do you think it was like for your ancestor?
45:57Listen, I think they were probably in a state of shock.
46:00How do you say, damn, in French?
46:02Yeah, right.
46:03Boy, oh.
46:04But think about this.
46:06It's likely that he never saw Bordeaux or his parents ever again.
46:15Because he came by mistake.
46:16That was a big decision to make.
46:18That's hard.
46:19To immigrate.
46:20What do you think that was like for him?
46:23Lonely.
46:24And I wonder if he had any Frenchmen that came with him and that he knew.
46:29Well, we know he was single, so he didn't come with a wife.
46:32Yeah.
46:32Do you think the sacrifice was worth it?
46:36Heck yeah.
46:37Said like a true American girl.
46:40Peter would prove Kristen right.
46:43He soon settled down in Galveston, an island city on the Texas coast, where he started a
46:50family and launched an unusual business.
46:56Occupation, restaurant keeper.
46:59Value of real estate owned, $300.
47:02Teresa, age 20, I guess that's his wife.
47:05Right.
47:05Francis, age six, Charles, age five, Selena or Celina, age three, so those were his kids.
47:12That's right.
47:13That's Peter living with his wife.
47:15You just met your great, great, great grandmother.
47:17That's nuts.
47:18And he was a restaurant keeper.
47:20He started an oyster house.
47:23You like oysters?
47:24No.
47:26San Jacinto Oyster House.
47:28Stop.
47:29Well, you don't get all, everything through DNA from your ancestors.
47:34That's right.
47:35When Peter started his business, restaurants were a rarity in Texas.
47:40But the waters off Galveston were filled with oyster beds.
47:44And Peter put those oysters to good use.
47:48Did you ever imagine that you descended from a restaurateur?
47:52No.
47:54No.
47:55That's cool, though.
47:56Your ancestors did very well.
47:58Turn the page.
47:58Oh, my goodness.
47:59This is so neat.
48:03Kristen, this is from a newspaper published in 1850.
48:06It's an advertisement from a Galveston, Texas paper called the Semi Weekly Journal.
48:12March 26, 1850.
48:14Would you please read what we transcribe for you?
48:16I mean, I've been offered to play this role, Jenny Lind.
48:18Isn't that amazing?
48:19It says, Jenny Lind, the Swedish nightingale, is coming to enliven this land of liberty with
48:23her sweet music.
48:25She is said to be the sweetest singer in the world, but the best, freshest, and fattest
48:31oysters are to be had at the San Jacinto House, where all orders will be promptly attended
48:36to for raw or roasted, stewed or steamed, boiled or fried.
48:41That's crazy.
48:43Jenny Lind was a world-famous opera singer who toured America in the 1850s.
48:48Often drawing huge crowds.
48:51And it seems that Peter felt she could help him promote his restaurant.
48:56He was a marketer.
48:57He was.
48:58And guess what?
48:59We looked high and low.
49:01We don't think Jenny, Jenny Lind ever came.
49:02Oh, well, he probably false advertised right here.
49:05Anything to get him in town.
49:07Peter was a busy man.
49:08Not only did he have a restaurant to run, a family to raise, he was also a lighthouse keeper.
49:14He sounds like an extremely enterprising guy.
49:18Yeah.
49:19Do you see any of those traits in yourself, Kristen?
49:22Same.
49:23The adventurous, the, a little bit entrepreneurial, a little bit.
49:29Mm-hmm.
49:29Um, and, and, pardon the word, but hustler.
49:34Yeah.
49:37The paper trail had now run out for each of my guests.
49:41It was time to show them their full family trees.
49:45Oh, my gosh.
49:47This is so cool.
49:48Whoa.
49:49Now filled with names they'd never heard before.
49:53I don't get in this frame.
49:55This is getting framed today.
49:56The frame-up.
49:58For each, it was a revelation.
50:00But Kristen's newfound roots also contained an unsettling discovery.
50:06Her mother descends from at least eight slave owners.
50:11They had slaves?
50:13Yeah.
50:13You know, look, it's a part of our history.
50:17Mm-hmm.
50:17Um, I'm glad to know that about my history.
50:19Sure.
50:20Um, I'd like to think that through education and evolution, they would not make the same
50:27choice today.
50:28Oh, yeah.
50:29But this is a real part of the truth, and it's the ugly truth.
50:33I wish it weren't, but it is a fact.
50:36For Spike, seeing his family's journey laid out from slavery to freedom provided nothing
50:44but joy.
50:46This is one of the greatest days of my life.
50:47Mm-hmm.
50:51Because I'm not here alone.
50:55I'm not here alone.
50:57I didn't get here alone either.
50:59No.
51:00A whole bunch of my answers are right here.
51:32Yeah.
51:33I'm so happy right now, you don't even know.
51:35No.
51:36I love her so much.
51:38I, I...
51:39This, like, actually makes me so emotional.
51:41I love her.
51:42Kristen shares a long segment of DNA with comedian Wanda Sykes, which means that the two share
51:50a common ancestor somewhere in the branches of their family trees.
51:56She's my favorite.
51:57Well, she is your cousin.
51:59She is your absolute cousin.
52:00End of our journey.
52:01The best surprise ever.
52:03That's the end of our journey with Kristen Chenoweth and Spike Lee.
52:08Join 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 Lights
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