Finding Your Roots

My quilt is a tribute to Henry Louis Gates, Jr., an American historian and a man who has shown the way for millions to discovering more about their ancestry. He has many accomplishments, but in this art quilt I want to celebrate how he has helped so many through his program Finding Your Roots and his other shows and books. Of particular interest to us is how he has opened the doors for African-Americans to find out more about their family histories through little known historic pathways and through the miracle of DNA testing. I have pictured Mr. Gates with the green leaves of a “family tree” behind him, symbolic of some of his most important and most enjoyed life’s work so far.