Season 2 · Episode 4 — Roots of Freedom
Actor Ben Affleck discovers his mother's past as a Freedom Rider in 1964, NAACP President Ben Jealous learns how far his great-grandfather would go to keep his family whole, and actress Khandi Alexander learns about her grandfather's death. This episode is not available from pbs because actor Ben Affleck had persuaded Gates to omit information about his slave-owning ancestors. In the investigation, PBS said that producers violated network standards by letting Mr. Affleck have “improper influence” and “by failing to inform PBS or WNET of Mr. Affleck’s efforts to affect program content.”
Season 2 episodes
E1Three famous guests — Stephen King, Gloria Reuben and Courtney B. Vance — know almost nothing about their fathers’ histories.
E2Billie Jean King, Derek Jeter and Rebecca Lobo learn about their family histories. King discovers that her grandmother was an orphan; Derek…
E3Ken Burns learns that his Southern ancestors include Confederate soldiers and a slave owner; Anderson Cooper learns that an ancestor on his…
E4Actor Ben Affleck discovers his mother's past as a Freedom Rider in 1964, NAACP President Ben Jealous learns how far his great-grandfather…
E5Chef Tom Colicchio learns the hardships his family endured in Northern Italy; chef Ming Tsai traces his roots back 2,000 years; chef Aarón…
E6Nas learns about his slave ancestors; Angela Bassett discovers that her family history includes an emancipation story; and Valerie Jarrett,…
E7Tony Kushner learns how the Holocaust impacted his ancestors; Carole King delves into the origins of her family name; and Alan Dershowitz d…
E8Deepak Chopra, Sally Field and Sting’s ancestry demonstrates the extraordinary influence of the British Empire during the 18th and early 19…
E9Tina Fey, George Stephanopoulos and David Sedaris, three quintessential voices in American life, descend from ancestors that were part of t…
E10Secrets encoded in their genomes challenge these guests’ ideas about their families’ histories and their identities today. This episode fea…