Trivia

In several scenes we see videos of Treasury Secretary Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. helping visitors to the Greenwood Cultural Center trace their genetic backgrounds. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a real scholar of African American history and genealogy, is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, and he has become popularly well-known as the host of the history, genealogy, and DNA-tracing PBS TV series "African American Lives" and "Finding Your Roots." In 2009, Skip Gates was the victim of a racial-profiling controversy when one of his Cambridge, Massachusetts, neighbors called 911 to claim that Gates was "breaking into" his own house. The incident led to a national conversation about race and policing, and culminated in a meeting at the White House between Gates, the arresting officer, President Barack Obama, and Vice-President Joe Biden that became known as the "Beer Summit." Contrary to his role in this TV show, however, Gates has never held any elected or appointed political office. See more