Episode One: Our American Stories

Premieres tonight at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN & THIRTEEN HD

What made America? What makes us? These two questions are at the heart of the new four-part series Faces of America with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Building on the success of his previous projects, African American Lives (2006), Oprah’s Roots (2007), African American Lives 2 (2008), and most recently Looking for Lincoln (2009), Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. turns again to the latest tools of genealogy and genetics to explore the family histories of 12 renowned Americans. Looking beyond the African American experience to the wider immigrant story, Professor Gates unravels the American tapestry, following the threads of his guests’ lives back to their earliest origins around the globe. Along the way, the many stories he uncovers — of displacement and homecoming, of material success and dispossession, of assimilation and discrimination — illuminate the American experience.

Episode One will explore the dynamic and shifting relationship America had with her new immigrants in the 20th century. World war tore apart families and sundered the fabric of many lives, but America beckoned and millions came. Yet, America was an ambivalent host. At its best, a place of refuge and salvation, as for film director Mike Nichols whose entire family escaped Nazi Germany. At its worst, a country that would imprison two generations of Japanese Americans, like the ancestors of Olympic gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi. Along the way, we'll discover the buoyant American optimism that shaped chance – as in a single encounter that changed musician Yo-Yo Ma's life forever – to pave the road to success.

The four-part series continues over the next three Wednesdays at 8 p.m.

And on the Faces of America Web site, watch exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series, including extra footage and commentary from Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.