Gates’ ‘Lives 2’ receives Parents’ Choice Award

Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s PBS documentary “African American Lives 2” has won the Parents’ Choice Gold Award for Television, awarded last month by the Parents’ Choice Foundation.

“We are delighted ‘African American Lives 2’ has been recognized as great television for children of all ages,” said Gates, the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute and Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard. “One of my chief goals in making the ‘African American Lives’ series is to introduce young people, and children of color in particular, to the idea that science and history are relevant to them. This award is a sign that we can realize this goal.”

“African American Lives 2” aired on PBS in 2008, two years after the original “African American Lives” was broadcast. Utilizing the latest advances in DNA and genetic science and old-fashioned genealogical detective work, “African American Lives 2” traced the maternal and paternal ancestors of 11 prominent African Americans to their origins in Africa or Europe. Guests included Maya Angelou, Bliss Broyard, Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, Peter Gomes, and others.

The Parents’ Choice Awards are awarded by the Parents’ Choice Foundation, the nation’s oldest nonprofit guide to quality children’s media and toys. For more on the foundation, visit http://www.parents-choice.org.