paying $22 a month in rent.”
While doing research on his own family with the help of Ailes and genealogist Johni Cerny, Gates, host of the landmark PBS series African-American Lives and the author of the book Finding Oprah’s Roots: Finding Your Own (Crown; $19.95), discovered a relative who fought in the American Revolution and received a pension.
“What this technology can show,” Gates stresses, “is that our people triumphed over adversity. The sacrifices our ancestors made produced this vibrant generation of African American people. We find tales of triumph and nobility everywhere.”