LeVar Burton stunned to discover ancestor served with Confederacy on 'Finding Your Roots'

LeVar Burton just took a look at his family tree and was shocked by what he found.

The "Reading Rainbow" host appeared on the latest episode of PBS' "Finding Your Roots," where he discovered that one of his ancestors served in the Confederate States Army.

The show's researchers made the discovery while investigating Burton's great-grandmother, Mary Sills. According to host Henry Louis Gates Jr., an analysis of Burton's DNA led to the conclusion that Sills' biological father, Burton's great-great-grandfather, was a white man named James Henry Dixon.

"Wow," Burton said before he burst out laughing in shock. "So granny was half-white. Wow."

The show's additional research indicated that Dixon was born in North Carolina in 1847 and joined the junior reserves of the Confederate Army during the Civil War, though he apparently did not see battle.

"So you have an ancestor who served with the Confederacy," Gates stressed, leading a stunned Burton to reply, "Are you kidding me? Oh my god. I did not see this coming."

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As an adult, Dixon "fathered a child with an African American woman who had been born into slavery," Gates went on to explain. He died in 1906 and reportedly had at least nine children and more than 40 grandchildren, meaning Burton has "an extensive network of white cousins," the host said.

The "Roots" star found these revelations "insanely surprising" and said they left him feeling conflicted.

"I'd have fought you five minutes ago if you told me that I had a white great-great grandfather," he said, adding a joking reference to his character, "Kunta's got white ancestry! What?" But Burton also suggested that the show had offered him an "entry point to talk to white America."

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Gates also informed Burton, who said his mother shared little with him about her upbringing, that his great-grandfather and grandfather both worked in education as school superintendents, foreshadowing Burton's role as host of an educational show, "Reading Rainbow."

"It fills me with great pride that I have inherited this mantle of educator," Burton said before he began to cry. "That's very cool. I'm very proud of that."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LeVar Burton discovers his white ancestry on 'Finding Your Roots'