LeVar Burton discovers he’s descended from Confederate soldier: ‘There’s some conflict roiling inside of me’

LA Times ^ | January 17, 2024 | Emily St. Martin

[Mafe]

LeVar Burton got a glimpse into his lineage in “Finding Your Roots” and discovered something about his ancestors that shocked him.

The former “Reading Rainbow” host, freedom-to-read advocate and actor knew little about his lineage. He’d been estranged from his father, Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, since he was 11, and his mother, Erma Gene Christian, had been tight-lipped about her own history. Burton said it was “impossible” to get her to open-up about her upbringing.

[MinorityRepublican]

If that figure - 75-80% - is true now, shouldn't it increase to 95-96% by the following generation (assuming that intermarrying amongst nominally "Black" people is not constrained by their bloodlines)?

Except for Kenyan-Americans like Obama.

[MinorityRepublican]

Bad example. Obama’s mother is white but still his father came from Kenya.

[Brooklyn Attitude]

“My relatives fought for the Union.”

My relatives fought for the Roman Empire.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Well, some guy named Tom got a peep at her, thus the term “Pepping Tom.”

[teeman8r]

those would be the people encouraging tom to peep... the peppers...

[Albion Wilde]

“Disney will remake Gone With The Wind starring Le Var Burton and Beyonce and the maid will be Britney Spears.”

Actually, that sounds more like something Netflix would do.

....

[DoughtyOne]

Could be. What an insult to the improvements from slavery, segregation,
and racism, that these folks still think there’s a massive problem.

Look how many people watched Roots and sympathized with Blacks
treated terribly. Some of these folks don’t have a clue.

[central_va]

Dixon was a defender of slavery who went on to father a child with a Black woman born into slavery.

In my study of first hand accounts of the USCW I never read anything where a Confederate soldier said he was defendng slavery. Such BS

[alexander_busek]

I also have relatives that participated in the Underground Railroad back then.

C.R. MacNamara: Just between us, Schlemmer, what did you do during the war?

Schlemmer: I was in der Untergrund: the underground.

C.R. MacNamara: Resistance fighter?

Schlemmer: No, motorman. In the underground, you know, the subway.

C.R. MacNamara: Of course you were anti-Nazi and you never liked Adolf.

Schlemmer: Adolf who?

Regards,

[dfwgator]

Schlemmer, you’re back in the SS: Small Salary!

[alexander_busek]

I descend from survivors of the Johnstown Flood of 1889.

What a coincidence! I'm a descendant of victims of the Johnstown Flood of 1889!

Regards,

[alexander_busek]

[...] they never mention the sacrifices of our forebearers forebears who fought for the Union side. Now... On the other hand... If your forbearers forebears fought for the Confederates...

Regards,

[jerod]

Merci

[mmichaels1970]

What a coincidence! I'm a descendant of victims of the Johnstown Flood of 1889!

We visited the museum in town and the memorial park when passing through town without knowing I was a descendent. Only put it together a week later when going through my family history papers. Now I want to go back. Great grandfather gave one of his sons (my uncle) the middle name “Flood”.

Not sure if you’ve been to the museum. But as a descendant of a victim, I’d guess you’d find the artifacts there quite moving.

[Fledermaus]

Who isn’t?

[mmichaels1970]

Sorry. Responded to the wrong post of yours.

What a coincidence! I'm a descendant of victims of the Johnstown Flood of 1889!

We visited the museum in town and the memorial park when passing through town without knowing I was a descendent. Only put it together a week later when going through my family history papers. Now I want to go back. Great grandfather gave one of his sons (my uncle) the middle name “Flood”.

Not sure if you’ve been to the museum. But as a descendant of a victim, I’d guess you’d find the artifacts there quite moving.

[ladyjane]

I did the DNA thing also and found that a g.g...g uncle allegedly had a baby with a teenager girl. He was in his 60’s and she was 16. However, some evidence suggests that he was covering up for either his recently married son or his nephew.

[ladyjane]

You beat me to it but HE actually gets zero because he’s a former slave OWNER’S ggggg grandson.

There were thousands of black slave owners. Some owned plantations. Are their descendants going to get reparations?

[ladyjane]

One of my white great grandmothers times X WAS a slave in MASS, 1637...

In the colonies every family had to provide for themselves. If they couldn't they would be auctioned off to a family that would provide food and shelter. If the family could somehow get some money they could buy their freedom from that family.

[vetvetdoug]

“Pepping Tom” was the one spanking his monkey when she rode by. “Peeping Tom” just looked at her curvaceous and nekkid body.