Photo: PBS.org
It’s a red-letter week for Oprah Winfrey. Not only did we learn that her Book Club is returning, tonight brings the PBS special Oprah’s Roots, the blazing coda to the popular African American Lives series, in which Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. examines prominent black people’s background through both historical records and DNA testing and has determined that, in fact, no one he’s profiled is descended from an Indian chief. A sneak peek at the romp through Oprah’s DNA reveals that the talk-show host, who explains that she has a passion for “education and land,” has links to both an educational fund-raiser and a former slave who when freed acquired 80 acres. Unconfirmed: Oprah may also have had a self-righteous great-aunt, a nosy great-grandmother, and a distant cousin who gave tin lizzies to an entire town.
Oprah’s Roots [PBS]
’Oprah’s Roots’ Is Part Biography, Part Genealogy [Chicago Tribune]
