Finding Oprah's Roots: Finding Yours

By Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Finding Oprah’s Roots will not only endow readers with a new appreciation for the key contributions made by history’s unsung but also equip them with the tools to connect to pivotal figures in their own past. A roadmap through the intricacies of public documents and online databases, the book also highlights genetic testing resources that can make it possible to know one’s distant tribal roots in Africa.

For Oprah, the path back to the past was emotion-filled and profoundly illuminating, connecting the narrative of her family to the larger American narrative and “anchoring” her in a way not previously possible. For the reader, Finding Oprah’s Roots offers the possibility of an equally rewarding experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 23, 2007
• ISBN: 9780307393791

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Professor Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-two books and created eighteen documentary films, including Finding Your Roots. His six-part PBS documentary, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Historical Program-Long Form, as well as a Peabody Award, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, and NAACP Image Award.

Reviews for Finding Oprah's Roots

[r0bin_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The "finding Oprah's roots" part of the book is interesting and informative. This wasn't intended to be a full biography. There are other more in-depth books about Oprah if that is what you are looking for. The "finding your own" parts of the book are most helpful if your family were slaves in the South. It was not as helpful for my research.

For example, the author repeats several times "... starting out by turning to the 1870 U.S. census -- the first U.S census, as we have seen, that listed African Americans with two names, first and last." African Americans were listed by two names on all censuses after they were freed and they were free much earlier in the North than in the South. One of the African American families that I am researching is listed on the 1800 census and one is listed on the 1820 census. True, only the head of household is listed by first and last name on early censuses (before 1850) but the 1870 census is clearly not the first census to list African Americans by two names.

Unfortunately, my local library did not have an up-to-date book on African American genealogy so I will have to buy or borrow something else.