Watch: ‘Roots’ Star LeVar Burton Stunned to Learn He Is Descended from a Confederate Soldier
Perhaps more investigations into personal ancestries will help calm the pathological madness at the root of modern racial obsessions.
On Tuesday’s episode of PBS’ “Finding Your Roots,” host Henry Louis Gates Jr. sprang a shocking surprise on LeVar Burton, who rose to fame as a young actor in the legendary 1977 slavery-themed miniseries “Roots.”
Based on DNA tests and extensive historical research, Burton, who is black, learned that he had a white great-great-grandfather who served in the Confederate Army’s junior reserves.
“Are you kidding me?” Burton said while shaking his head in disbelief.
Gates, a Harvard scholar, hosts weekly episodes of the genealogy research show.
Burton,
