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<p>Henry Louis Gates Jr., the renowned documentary filmmaker and Harvard professor, paid a visit to Beaufort last week.</p>
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<p>On Thursday, April 4, Gates, the host of the popular PBS series “Finding Your Roots,” visited Technical College of the Lowcountry for a screening from his four-part PBS documentary, “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War.”</p>
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<p>Beaufort County will be home to the newly established Reconstruction Era National Park.</p>
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<p>After the screening, there was a panel discussion featuring Gates, ETV's Beryl Dakers, Damon Fordham, Millicent Brown and noted South Carolina historian Walter Edgar.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>Then on Friday, Gates led a virtual classroom discussion about the documentary with the Young Leaders of Beaufort, a middle school leadership organization started by Beaufort mayor Billy Keyserling, in a studio at WJW-TV, the S.C. Education Television studio in Beaufort.</p>
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<p>The event was broadcast live to schools throughout the state and podcast to the general public.</p>
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<p>The virtual classroom discussion can be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/y2oszdgc.</p>
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<p>Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. An Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Gates has authored or co-authored 21 books and created 15 documentaries.</p>
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<p>Part 1 of “Reconstruction: America After the Civil War” next airs on SCETV at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16.<br></p>
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