HENRY LOUIS GATES JR.

Viola Davis makes discoveries about her family history and grandfather's identity on the latest episode of Finding Your Roots. Here's what she learns.

Actor Danny Trejo learned about his family on the latest episode of FInding Your Roots, including that they were storeowners and landowners.

Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of the PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” explains how we can more we get an accurate picture of what it means to be American.

Actor Joe Manganiello learned a shocking revelation about his paternal grandfather during this season of PBS’s Finding Your Roots.

Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. informed the “True Blood” star that the man the family believed to be Manganiello's paternal grandfather really wasn't. (Photo by John Salangsang/Invision/AP, File) (John Salangsang)LOS ANGELES — (AP) — Joe Manganiello marveled at the years-old mysteries in his family that were solved through DNA by researchers on PBS’ “Finding Your Roots,” including a revelation involving the actor’s paternal grandfather. “My family and I had a betting pool of what it is, like what’s so bad that you can’t announce it on the episode?” Manganiello told a TV critics meeting Thursday. Gates informed Manganiello that the man the family believed to be the actor’s paternal grandfather really wasn’t. Manganiello was told his great-grandmother was incarcerated and met a German officer stationed at the camp.

Actor Joe Manganiello got some big surprises when researchers for the PBS show “Finding Your Roots” went digging through his family history.

Joe Manganiello marveled at the years-old mysteries in his family that were solved through DNA by researchers on PBS’ “Finding Your Roots,” including a revelation involving the actor’s paternal grandfather. It was so surprising that host Henry Louis Gates Jr. had to call Manganiello with the news so he wouldn’t find out first during taping. “My family and I had a betting pool of what it is, like what’s so bad that you can’t announce it on the episode?” Manganiello told a TV critics meeting Thursday.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. told CBS News that marking Juneteenth as a federal holiday was a long time coming.

These essays from Enlightenment thinkers help show how pseudoscience about race developed, Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Andrew S. Curran write.

Author, playwright and longtime champion of multiculturalism Ishmael Reed is receiving a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to literature.

The founder of Audible Inc., a leading force in the booming audiobook industry, will be honored in May at PEN America’s annual gala.

Rarely have past and present mingled in a documentary the way they do in “Descendant,” a nonfiction account of the last known ship to bring African captives to the American South for enslavement.

2021 PEN America Literary Gala Corporate honoree Robert Iger, left, playwright Wole Soyinka, actress Jodie Foster and PEN/Audible Literary Service Award recipient Dr. Henry Louis Gates pose together at the 2021 PEN America Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in New York. PEN, the literary and human rights organization, required everyone to present proof of vaccination and proof of a negative test within 72 hours of the event. But PEN President Ayad Akhtar, the author and playwright, called the gala a kind of civic duty. According to PEN, around 500 people came to the gala, hundreds less than in recent years. Hosted by the actor-rapper Awkafina, the PEN gala was a defense of freedom of expression and a warning against the spread of lies.

Soyinka will be attending this fall’s PEN America literary gala. “Wole Soyinka is a giant in world literature. His stature is proportionate to the momentous task of recognizing Professor Gates for his contributions to our understanding of history and culture." Gates and Soyinka, the 86-year-old novelist, playwright and poet, first met in 1973 when both were visiting Fellows at Clare College. PEN previously announced that Walt Disney Chairman and former CEO Robert A. Iger will receive the PEN America Corporate Honoree award, and will be introduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka will be attending this fall’s PEN America literary gala.

A new wave of public health advocacy that is multilingual, culturally sensitive, entertaining and personal is rapidly replacing mundane public service announcements in the battle to stamp out the disinformation around COVID-19 vaccines in communities of color.

This year's winners of the Anisfield-Wolf awards include novelist James McBride, former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey and science fiction great Samuel R.

This image released by NBC shows, from left, Dani Lane as Aubrey, Kenan Thompson as Kenan, and Dannah Lane as Birdie in a scene from the comedy series, "Kenan," premiering on Feb. 16. (Casey Durkin/NBC via AP)Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. The album has 13 tracks including “Tigress & Tweed,” an original Day wrote with veteran singer-producer Raphael Saadiq. Ad— “Saturday Night Live” cast member Kenan Thompson, who two decades ago co-starred in “Kenan and Kel,” is headlining his own sitcom. It details the African American church’s history, from enslavement to emancipation, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement to today.

FILE - Norah O'Donnell attends Variety's third annual "Salute to Service" celebration on Nov. 6, 2019, in New York. From the ongoing COVID global pandemic and George Floyd protests around the world to the contested 2020 presidential and last week's storming of the U.S. capitol by armed insurgents, O'Donnell concluded that "journalism is more important than ever." And we certainly saw since the beginning of the global pandemic, people were hungry for news about what is COVID-19, how is the coronavirus spread? ... We went to Houston for his funeral in Houston because this was a seminal moment in American history not to be eclipsed by a global pandemic, that this movement for racial justice in America should not be eclipsed even by a global pandemic. AP: What are your thoughts on the connection some are drawing to the Capitol insurgency and the Floyd protests?

Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. maps Gayle King's family tree Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. joins "CBS This Morning" to discuss his popular PBS series, "Finding Your Roots." Gates researches Gayle King's family tree on a new episode airing Tuesday, January 5.

FILE - In this June 1, 2020, file photo President Donald Trump arrives to speak in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington. Trump has remained largely silent on that, except to argue that a strong economy is the best antidote. Sometimes youll see some horrible things like we witnessed recently," he said, referring to Floyd's death at a White House meeting Monday with law enforcement officials. Before his 2016 run, Trump spent years pushing the false claim that President Barack Obama, the nations only black president, was not born in the United States. The fact is the mainstream media wont give the president the credit he deserves for improving lives in the black community, Scott said.

Trump has remained largely silent on that, except to argue that a strong economy is the best antidote. But those who flooded the streets after Floyds death want to know what he plans to address the systemic racism they believe is at fault and what Trump himself believes. Sometimes youll see some horrible things like we witnessed recently," he said, referring to Floyd's death at a White House meeting Monday with law enforcement officials. Before his 2016 run, Trump spent years pushing the false claim that President Barack Obama, the nations only black president, was not born in the United States. The fact is the mainstream media wont give the president the credit he deserves for improving lives in the black community, Scott said.