African American Lives

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/aalivestoolkit/

Febraury 13 Channel 13 at 9pm
1) Who is Dr. Henry Gates?
2) Choose an interviewee and discuss the following:
the historical events of his/her family
the historical- significance of his/her family

Henry Gates is a literary critic, educator, scholar, writer, editor and public intellectual. He has been the host and co-producer of African American Lives in which the ancestry of notable African Americans is traced using resources and DNA testing.

He has licked the ancestry of many remarkable African Americans including Jackie Joyner- Kersee. She is an Olympian athlete that has won three gold medals, one silver and two bronze medals in the heptathlon and long jump competitions in 1988.

The research done on her ancestry revealed:
- In 1827 Gabriel Connor, Jackie Joyner-Kersee's great, great, great, great grandfather, is forced to move from Virginia to Tennessee when he becomes the property of his owner's son.
- In 1900 Drip Rainey and Ellen Collins, Jackie Joyner-Kersee's great, great grandparents are property owners in Mississippi after having lived as slaves under slavery.
- In 1962 Jacqueline Joyner-Kersee is born in East St. Louis, Illinois. In the same year, Malcolm X becomes national minister of the Nation of Islam and embraces a separatist philosophy that is markedly different from the nonviolent civil rights movement's integrationist stance.
- In 1984 Jackie Joyner-Kersee attends her first Olympic games. In the same year, Jesse Jackson becomes the second African American to make a bid for the presidency of the United States.