by Dan Perkins
It
has been a busy two years for Tony Burroughs,
noted genealogist and author of the highly
acclaimed guide to black genealogy entitled,
Black Roots. When
diversityinbusiness.com last sat down with
Burroughs in 2005, he had just completed hosting
the Discovery Channel's groundbreaking
television documentary special, The Family
of Jesus. (Click
here to see dib
article.) Since then, Burroughs has been a
consultant on several high profile projects,
including two PBS television specials.
In February 2007, Burroughs found himself the
focus of media attention for his role in
assisting Ancestry.com in uncovering a
startling genealogical fact. Researchers
for Ancestry.com had discovered that the
ancestors of political activist Al Sharpton
were once the property of relatives of the late
Strom Thurmond, a U.S. Senator from South
Carolina who died in 2003. Thurmond is
perhaps best remembered as a outspoken
segregationist during the 1950s and early 1960s.
To the surprise of much of the nation, at around
the time of his death, it was revealed that
Thurmond had fathered a child out of wedlock with a black woman
in 1925 , a fact that was never mentioned while he preached
segregation.
When
diversityinbusiness.com sat down with
Burroughs, we were eager to learn the full story
behind the Sharpton discovery as well as
Burroughs' thoughts about DNA genealogy, which
is an emerging technology that many African
Americans believe can enable them to trace their
ancestry back to Africa. Below is an edited
excerpt of our conversation.
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Questions
Posed by
diversityinbusiness.com |
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1 |
Why all the interest in Al
Sharpton's genealogy? |
Click
here for video response
PC only |
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2 |
What
evidence is there linking Al
Sharpton's ancestors to the
family of the late Senator Strom
Thurmond? |
Click
here for video response
PC only |
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3 |
How did Al
Sharpton respond to the
discovery that the people who
owned his ancestors were
relatives of Senator Thurmond? |
Click
here for video response
PC only |
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4 |
What is the
value of Black Genealogy? |
Click
here for video response
PC only |
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5 |
How is DNA
used to support genealogy and
can it really tell African
Americans where in Africa they
come from? |
Click
here for video response
PC only |
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The End
