Roots

Roots (1977) was one of the most illustrious and impressive achievements in the history of television (see entry under 1940s—TV and Radio in volume 3). A miniseries twelve hours in length, it was broadcast over eight consecutive evenings on ABC. The series was an adaptation of Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), by African American writer Alex Haley (1921–1992). Haley's book chronicled his quest to discover his ancestry: to discover where his forefathers and fore-mothers had hailed from and the manner in which they came to America and lived their lives as slaves.

The United States is a nation of immigrants. Its citizens have come to its shores from across the globe, and mainly they have come freely. All, that is, except for one race: African Americans, who centuries earlier were taken from their homelands across the African continent, chained together and deprived of their freedom, and shipped over as slaves. Haley set out to explore his own family history, an effort that resulted in twelve years of research and writing. Because it would be impossible to verify facts, dates, and the identities of all those involved in his story, he chose to present it in novel form, as a combination of history and fiction, while at the same time contending that it was nonfictional in nature. In any case, Roots: The Saga of an American Family became a number-one best-seller (see entry under 1940s—Commerce in volume 3) and earned Haley a Pulitzer Prize.

Roots begins with the story of Kunta Kinte (played by LeVar Burton, 1957–), who is born in Gambia, West Africa, in 1750. He passes his childhood in freedom and then, at age seventeen, is captured by white slave traders and brought to America on board a ship. Kunta Kinte remains defiant and resentful over his enslavement. Throughout the rest of his life, he makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape his masters. Among his descendants are Kizzy (Leslie Uggams, 1943–), his daughter, who is raped by her owner; Chicken George (Ben Vereen, 1946–), Kizzy's son; and Tom (Georg Stanford Brown, 1943–), Chicken George's son—and Kunta Kinte's great grandson. The story ends well over a century after it begins, in Tennessee after the Civil War (1861–65). Tom now may technically be a free man, but he still exists in a nation in which African Americans are economically exploited, second-class citizens.

When Roots premiered, nothing like it had ever been presented on American TV. No program before it featured its combination of length and historical thrust. However, the show was open to controversy. Some historians and critics contended that it overstated the explosive relationships between its black and white characters. Furthermore, the slave trade was allowed to thrive as much because of the willingness of black Africans to sell neighboring tribes into slavery as because of the willingness of white traders to make a profit. Several authors even accused Haley of plagiarism; eventually, the writer admitted that segments of a book titled The African (1967), by Harold Courlander (1908–), "found their way" into his own work.

Controversy aside, what Roots did accomplish was to give the slave experience in America a human face by chronicling the story of one specific family. The series was a ratings hit, with all of its eight telecasts ranking among the thirteen most widely seen programs up to that date. It was followed by a sequel, Roots: The Next Generations (1979), which ran twelve hours and was broadcast over seven evenings. Also known as Roots II, the miniseries charted the plights and fates of Kunta Kinte's descendants from 1882 through 1967. Roots: The Gift (1988), a made-for-TV movie, came nine years later.

—Rob Edelman

For More Information

Courlander, Harold. The African. New York: Crown Publishers, 1967.

Gonzales, Doreen. Alex Haley: Author of Roots. Hillside, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1994.

Haley, Alex. Roots: The Saga of an American Family. New York: Doubleday, 1976.

Roots (television miniseries). ABC, 1977.

The Roots of Alex Haley (television documentary). British Broadcasting Company, 1997.