The scholar is busy with a new book, 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro, a forthcoming anthology and the fourth season of Finding Your Roots
Which of the facts in your book do you think is most amazing? The first African American was Juan Garrido, who joined Ponce de Leon’s expedition to Florida, searching for the fountain of youth—the fact that there was a black man present at that event. One of the most shocking facts to me is that there were black slaveholders.
You write about how the 1957 book that inspired this one used genealogy to debunk racial purity. How does that square with your mission on Finding Your Roots? I have a couple of missions. One is to show that we’re all descended from people who came to this country from somewhere else. Secondly, that we’re all related. If you go back far enough, everybody came out of Africa. This idea still makes some people uncomfortable.
This story is from the November 13,2017 edition of Time.
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This story is from the November 13,2017 edition of Time.
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