AT&T Presents: Listen 2 Learn! Vanessa Williams

Desperate Housewives star Vanessa Williams is no longer desperate to trace her roots. Thanks to NBC's reality series Who Do You Think You Are? she was able to see her family lineage in the making. "As African Americans, we don't have a lot of records that are available, due to slavery, due to poverty, so we're often not able to trace," the diva tells Film Festival Radio host Janice Malone. "But we went back to 1792 on one side of my family, and the biggest surprise was seeing images. I have pictures of both my great-great grandfathers from the mid-1860s. One is in the Tennessee State House of Legislation, and the other is in his Civil War Union uniform—with the American flag draped across his knee!"