This is a sequel to the 2006 PBS series “African American Lives.”  Oprah Winfrey,  Chris Tucker and T.D Jakes took part in the highly successful first installment which traced their roots back to Liberia, Angola, and Nigeria respectively. 

Henry Louis Gates Jr. traces the ancestry of famous black people as far back as the written record allows, and then a little farther, thanks to the scientific magic of DNA analysis.  The new installment is very like the first, entertaining and educational in the same even proportion.

Celebrities whose family trees are climbed this time include Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Don Cheadle, Tina Turner, Maya Angelou, radio host Tom Joyner, theologian Peter J. Gomes, Olympic runner Jackie Joyner-Kersee and writer Bliss Broyard (the daughter of literary critic Anatole Broyard, a black man whose children thought he was white).

Tune in tonight on PBS at 9 PM EST.