LeVar Burton’s experience at Searching for your roots he was quite striking.
Former Reading the Rainbow presenter, literacy advocate and actor was estranged from his father Levardis Robert Martyn Burton for “decades” after his parents divorced when he was 11, according to Searching for your roots hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
But during the latest episode of the PBS series, LeVar, now 66, has discovered that he and his father have more in common than he first thought.
In the episode, Gates revealed to LeVar that both his grandfather, Aaron C. Burton, and great-grandfather, Pearl B. Burton, were school superintendents. Pearl, in particular, spent most of his adult life working in schools, helping to open a public school for African-American children in Osceola, Arkansas—an institution that was founded when roughly 20% of the state’s black population was illiterate.
LeVar Burton Reflects On His ‘Roots’ — And America’s Way Forward: ‘The Work Is Not Done’
“You inherited this invisible presence in your life — a guy who disappeared when you were 11 — but all that legacy in education came with him,” Gates said, referring to LeVar’s father.
LeVar, a longtime literacy advocate, was “thrilled” to learn this, except to realize that his paternal great-great-grandfather served as a representative in the Arkansas General Assembly thanks to the Reconstruction Act of 1867. The law gave blacks in former Confederate states the right votes two years after the end of the civil war.
“I can’t even explain how it feels to get this information,” he explained. “It was as if some parts of me were missing. They were always there somewhere… Black people. We don’t share family stories, you know? We are really undecided.”
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with LeVar Burton in ‘Finding Your Roots.’.
PBS
The Star Trek: The Next Generation the actor mentioned his mother, Erma Gene Christian, who was “so persistent that we don’t know the trials and tribulations she went through.”
“She was trying to protect us, but it leaves us in the dark about who we are,” LeVar explained. “This information is the stuff we need to feel whole.”
LeVar Burton immortalized with figurine designed to encourage children to read
LeVar’s mom was a high school English teacher, whom he previously credited with his love of reading. He also shared the main reason he decided to host the educational television series PBS Kids Reading the Rainbow from 1983 to 2006 was to honor his late mother.
But realizing that education also played such a strong role in his paternal line was “overwhelming” for him Star Trek: The Next Generation alum.
“Never in a million years would I have imagined that you would find this kind of information for my family… This will reverberate for a while,” he added. “So powerful.”
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Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. airs Tuesdays at 8:00 PM ET on PBS.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education