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*Celebrity guests of PBS’s “Finding Your Roots” are usually left in shambles over a profound revelation about their ancestor, and it was no different for Regina King. In an April 2022 episode, the actress learned some things about her father’s upbringing that helped her understand him more.
“Growing up, I never really knew much about him other than he loved us and where he worked and his friends, who were his good friends. But never did he share (his roots),” she told host Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. of her late dad, Thomas King Jr. Gates then told King that her grandfather, Thomas King Sr., was absent for part of her father’s childhood. This had King in shock.
“From my vantage point as a girl, my grandfather was definitely in (my father’s) life because I knew my grandfather. My grandfather actually gave me away at my wedding,” she said. “It makes me angry. It makes me feel sad for my dad.”
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Census records from 1940 revealed that King’s grandfather was living a double life. He had two separate families in two different cities: King’s father and grandmother, Ruby, in Memphis, and his legal wife Cora in Chicago. King said her grandfather’s two families had never been discussed among her relatives, and the news allowed the actress to see Ruby in a different light
“My grandmother was a very sad woman. I remember that as a little girl,” King said.
“Now you know why,” Gates replied.
Gates and the “Finding Your Roots” researchers also found that Thomas King Sr. grew up under “challenging circumstances.” His parents, James and Callie King, divorced when he was a child. Records show she disappeared from his life and lived with a new husband, in a new city.
“My mind is just … this is a lot to take in. A lot I’ve never seen and never heard,” King said, speaking about her family’s “patterns.” She called the revelation “unimaginable.”
Learning about the various dimensions of her father’s childhood helped the actor understand him a bit more.
“Pain is inherited as well as joy,” she said.
Watch more clips from Regina King’s Season 8 episode of “Finding Your Roots” below:
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