Roots (TV)

Identification Landmark television miniseries>

Roots helped shape racial attitudes, furthered changes already underway in the television industry, and promoted an interest in genealogy among Americans.>

Date Aired January 23-30, 1977

The hardback edition of African American author Alex Haley’s Roots: The Saga of an American Family, published in 1976, sold more than 1.6 million copies in the first six months. By 1977, Roots was the number-one nonfiction book. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) produced a miniseries based on the book that ran on eight successive nights in early 1977. Roots starred many prominent African American and white actors, including Leslie Uggams, Louis Gossett, Jr., Ben Vereen, Lloyd Bridges, and Ed Asner. The series introduced LeVar Burton as its most memorable character, Kunta Kinte. The television audience was enormous, with more than 100 million viewers seeing the final episode.

Haley’s Research and Plot Line

Haley’s inspiration was family lore passed down from his maternal grandparents, including some African words and mentions of a slave ancestor named Toby. Over a period of eleven years, Haley researched his background by calling on resources such as slave ship records and African language experts. He visited Juffure, Ghana, and met with a native oral historian. Haley wove his findings into a smoothly flowing narrative with memorable characters. He described Roots as combining fact and fiction; while the book’s events may not be entirely true to historic record, they broadly recounted what happened to many African slaves and their progeny.

The miniseries covered many generations of Haley’s ancestors, beginning with Kunta Kinte. He was born in 1750 and was captured by slave hunters at age fifteen. He endured terrible conditions while chained below the deck of a slave ship, and he was humiliated at the Annapolis slave market, where he was sold to John Waller. Waller named him “Toby.” Typical of his defiance of slavery in all its aspects, Kunta Kinte refused to accept his slave name, and he attempted escape many times. He had a daughter, Kizzy, to whom he taught pride in her African heritage. Each succeeding generation passed on this oral tradition. In a traumatic scene, Kizzy was sold away from her parents and was raped repeatedly by her new owner, Tom Lea. Kizzy’s son, George, had cockfighting skills, which led to his nickname “Chicken George.” George and his slave wife had eight children before he was sold to cover his owner’s gambling debts. George eventually became a free man. He and his son Tom, a blacksmith, worked to achieve freedom and a better life for the rest of the family.

Promoting Change

Roots reinforced some of the trends in American society during the mid-1970’s, when advances in civil rights for African Americans were occurring. Consistent with this trend, Roots highlighted that black Americans had endured great discrimination in the past and deserved respect and fair treatment in the present.

It portrayed African Americans as dignified, noble people, contrasting with the negative Uncle Tom stereotype. The show brought about a new understanding among white Americans of the immorality of slavery and racial discrimination, since the characters were portrayed vividly as real people with gut-wrenching experiences. White Americans could begin to empathize with the “interior life” of African Americans. The show dispelled some myths commonly believed by white Americans: that the slaves were docile, that they accepted their fate, and that slavery was no worse than the difficulties encountered by European immigrants.

Roots also represented a continuation of trends in television programming during the mid-1970’s. Americans had witnessed serious topics depicted on television, such as the Watergate hearings, and they were becoming accustomed to seeing previously taboo topics on the small screen with programs such as Saturday Night Live and All in the Family. Network television featured several African Americans in leading roles, and race became a theme in programs such as Good Times and Sanford and Son.

Impact

American television was never the same after Roots. The networks previously had aired only one miniseries, Rich Man, Poor Man, in 1976. Roots was a blockbuster success and proved that Americans appreciated the miniseries format. Networks began to produce many miniseries, such as Holocaust (1978), Shogun (1980), and War and Remembrance (1988). Roots also developed the “docudrama” form, a presentation of historic fact using the melodramatic style of a soap opera. Violence and sex permeated the story line, and the emotional scenes captured viewers’ interest. A sequel to the miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations, aired in 1979.

Moreover, the series led to an enormous growth of interest in popular genealogy. Americans realized that they too could research their family backgrounds. This interest was awakened especially in African Americans, who learned to investigate linkages with their homelands, and many traveled to Africa as tourists.

Bibliography

Bogle, Daniel. “Roots and Roots: The Next Generation.” In Blacks in American Film and Television. New York: Taylor & Francis, 1988. Provides plot synopses of the two miniseries and critical analyses of the shows’ impact.

Fiedler, Leslie. The Inadvertent Epic: From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to “Roots.” New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979. Discusses important works that shaped American cultural attitudes about race.

Tucker, Lauren R., and Hemant Shah. “Race and the Transformation of Culture: The Making of the Television Series Roots.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 9 (1992): 325-336. Highlights how Roots brought race to the forefront of American television viewing.