LeVar Burton made the shocking discovery that he has white ancestors in his family tree on the latest episode of PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates.
The 66-year-old Reading Rainbow host had questions about his family tree, as he grew up largely without a father and was raised by a single mother in Sacramento after being born in West Germany.
Host Henry Louis Gates and his team of researchers discovered that the actor had a great-great-grandfather named James Henry Dixon, a white man.
Dixon was married and had children of his own, but he had an extramarital affair with a black woman who was a former slave, and they had one child, Mary, Burton’s great-grandmother.
Early in Tuesday’s episode, Burton – who recently signed on to host a Trivial Pursuit TV show – admitted that it was “very difficult” to get stories about her heritage from her mother, leading to the discovery that he has a white big man. -great-grandfather.
LeVar Burton made the shocking discovery that he has white ancestors in his family tree on the latest episode of PBS’ Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates
The 66-year-old Reading Rainbow host had questions about his family tree, as he grew up largely without a father and was raised by a single mother in Sacramento after being born in West Germany.
Host Henry Louis Gates and his team of researchers discovered that the actor had a great-great-grandfather named James Henry Dixon, a white man
‘Impossible. She never wanted to share any of her history,” Burton admitted, as Gates said in the episode that the mystery begins with his great-grandmother, Mary Sills.
It was revealed that Mary may not even have known her own father, as the man listed as Mary’s father – Louis Sills – was not actually her father, according to the DNA analysis they performed.
Burton’s DNA matched several times to a man named James Henry Dixon, and as they dug through public records, they discovered that his mother’s inheritance was so mysterious because his great-grandmother Mary was half white.
Burton is seen in the episode reading Burton and his family, all listed as white, as Burton could only respond with “Wow.”
Gates explained that Mary’s father was married and living with children, as Burton realized, “She was the other family on the side.”
When Gates asked if he expected that, if he had any idea he had a white relative, Burton exclaimed, “No! No, I had no idea. So grandma was half white. Wow.’
Gates went back and researched Dixon’s life, revealing that he grew up in North Carolina, and that he had signed up to fight for the North Carolina Confederate Junior Reserves as a teenager.
‘Oh my God. Oh my God. I didn’t see this coming,” Burton said, while Gates added that the Junior Reserves were primarily used for guard duties, so they don’t think he actually saw any combat on the front lines.
‘Impossible. She never wanted to share any of her history,” Burton admitted, as Gates said in the episode that the mystery begins with his great-grandmother, Mary Sills.
It was revealed that Mary may not even have known her own father, as the man listed as Mary’s father – Louis Sills – was not actually her father, according to the DNA analysis they performed.
Burton’s DNA matched several times to a man named James Henry Dixon, and as they dug through public records, they discovered that his mother’s inheritance was so mysterious because his great-grandmother Mary was half white.
‘Oh my God. Oh my God. I didn’t see this coming,” Burton said, while Gates added that the Junior Reserves were primarily used for guard duties, so they don’t think he actually saw any combat on the front lines.
Still, as Gates explained, Dixon fought to defend slavery as a child, but as an adult he had a child with a former slave, which Burton tried to come to terms with.
“I often wonder about the white men of that period, and how they justified their relationships with black women, especially those who found themselves in an imbalanced power dynamic,” Burton said.
Burton wondered if Dixon was at worst “conflicted” about defending slavery, and “at best remorseful, and then there’s the possibility that he didn’t think about it at all.”
Gates then showed Burton a photo of his great-great-grandfather, James Henry Dixon, to which Burton said, “I would have fought you five minutes ago if you told me I had a white great-great-grandfather.”
‘What?! Kunta was given white ancestry. What?! Come on, Skip!’ Burton said, as Gates added, that Dixon had nine children and more than forty grandchildren before he died in 1906, meaning Burton has “an extensive network of white cousins whose roots go back centuries.”
‘This is incredibly surprising. There’s a conflict going on inside me right now, but…oddly enough, I feel a path opening up,” Burton said.
“I believe that as Americans we need to have a conversation about who we are and how we got here,” Burton admitted.
“I see that we are so polarized politically, emotionally and racially. We don’t talk to each other. So I’ve been looking for an entry point to talk to white America. Here it is,” Burton admitted.