'Lives' Makes a Present of Black Americans' Past

In the powerful second and third segments -- their titles are "The Promise of Freedom" and "Searching for Our Names" -- the subjects begin to learn about their lost forebears.

Goldberg cackles with glee at the news that her great-great-grandparents were property owners in 1878 Florida. "Let somebody tell me to go back where I came from now," she says.

Obtaining data from the slave era is trickier. Because slaves weren't citizens, they were often listed only by sex and age in census reports. But there are discoveries -- some courtesy of remarkable record-keeping by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City -- that leave the nine fascinated or even staggered.

Lawrence-Lightfoot's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, born in 1745, was a free man who sold weights and measures to the Continental Army. An ancestor of Gates fought in the Revolutionary War. And when Winfrey sees a record of a slave ancestor, tears streak down her face. "I know I come from this," she says quietly. But learning names and places and dates obviously brings it home with new immediacy.

The last hour, "Beyond the Middle Passage," would seem at the outset to be the most intriguing. It's here that, in some cases, DNA can be used to pinpoint which tribe or region of Africa the subjects' ancestors came from. It proves to be the least affecting segment, though, because at this point, scientific discovery takes center stage. The science is important, and it's far from dull, but inevitably the emotions are not as acute as they were for news of the flesh-and-blood people who struggled and labored and loved in this, their unsought new home.

Each person also receives a breakdown of his or her ethnicity. Winfrey correctly intuits that she has no European DNA, but in another aspect she's off the mark.

In Pasadena, Gates recalled the moment. "So for each person, I said, 'Where do you want to be from?' Oprah, of course, wants to be Zulu. She's announced to the world that she's Zulu. Oprah is not Zulu. Okay. None of us are Zulu. There are no African Americans who come from the Zulu people."

The DNA testers conclude that Winfrey most likely is descended from the Kpelle people of Liberia.

Gates himself received a jolt from his genetic report. His family had always known that its lineage was partly white -- the typical African American's DNA is 20 percent European -- but he was startled to learn that his DNA is 50 percent European, 50 percent African. He was asked about that at the conference's question-and-answer session.

"Oh, man -- it was the long dark night of the soul," he said, drawing a big laugh. "You know, what about my reparation check? I have to give away half of my reparation check? All that affirmative action money, I have to give it back. It's terrible. It's very embarrassing to me."

But it also solidified his thinking, he told the crowd. "What does it mean? Does that make me less black? I had to ask all those questions. And no, I mean, I'm very secure in my African American identity. It just means that African Americans and European Americans have been inextricably intertwined on the most intimate level from Day One in this country."

A little later, he added something equally crucial:

"I always say to my students, there are 35 million African Americans; there are 35 million ways to be black."

Not surprisingly, the nine principals are all highly effective on camera; their feelings and memories are conveyed simply and eloquently. And the production is greatly enhanced through the use of evocative photographs, many of them depicting the subjects' ancestors.

But of the nine, the charismatic Jakes is a solid-gold standout. At one point in the show, he proclaims: "It's not just a gathering of data but a gathering of hearts and tears and souls that makes us sing like we do and clap like we do and dance like we do and live like we do. It's because we suffered like we did."

That about says it. Many of these lives were lived hard, and the stories that are told are intensely personal. But in very important ways, they belong to us all.

African American Lives (two hours) airs tonight at 9 on Channels 22 and 26 and concludes next Wednesday at 9 p.m.