Henry Louis Gates Jr. tells Sarasota crowd that America is 'a nation of immigrants'

Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. discussed race, politics and his family story during an address in Sarasota Thursday.

He spoke at the Library Foundation for Sarasota County’s “Love Our Libraries” Author Luncheon, which celebrated the foundation’s 10th anniversary.

He is the host of “Finding Your Roots,” a popular PBS series in which celebrities learn about their genealogy.

“It gives me such an enormous amount of pleasure to be the host of this series at a time when our country is so divided,” said Gates, who is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University.

His series, he noted, reminds people that America is a “nation of immigrants.”

“And right now, when forces are trying to exploit anxieties about xenophobia, we have to be reminded this is a nation that welcomes the immigrant and welcomes the stranger,” he said, “and we wouldn’t be here if somebody hadn’t welcomed somebody on our family tree.”

He added that “Finding Your Roots” shows that on the level of the genome, humans are 99.9% the same.

Gates told the audience about his family’s story and genealogy. His great-great-grandmother, who had been enslaved, purchased a home in 1870 for $1,200.

Gates also spoke about voting rights. He played a clip from the “Finding Your Roots” episode that explored civil rights icon John Lewis’ genealogy. Gates told Lewis that his great-great-grandfather registered to vote in Alabama in 1867.

But in later decades, Southern states held constitutional conventions where they disenfranchised African American voters. In 1898, 130,000 Black men were registered to vote in Louisiana. That number was down to 1,342 by 1904, according to Gates.

“Which is why, no matter if you’re on the left side of the aisle or the right side of the aisle, we all have to join hands, join together and defend the right of every American to vote,” he said to applause.

Several states across the country passed more restrictive voting laws last year, including Florida. The state Legislature is considering additional legislation this year that would make elections officials purge voter rolls more frequently.

After his talk, Gates participated in a Q&A with journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

Anne Snabes covers city and county government for the Herald-Tribune. You can contact her at asnabes@gannett.com or (941) 228-3321 and follow her on Twitter at @a_snabes.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Henry Louis Gates Jr. discusses race, politics in Sarasota talk