New 'Roots' Saga of Slavery, Family Debuts Monday Night

ANNAPOLIS, MD — An updated telling of one family’s journey from the sale of an African at a Maryland seaport to life in America two centuries later, a new version of “Roots” hits the country’s TV screens Monday night.

Best known as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the 1976 novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Family,” Alex Haley told the story of his ancestor, Kunta Kinte, a Gambian man who first landed at City Dock in Annapolis as a slave in September 1767.

“It’s about how a black family persevered through generations to exist and to value their own existence to the point where one of them found their courage and the resources to write about his story and validate the stories of his ancestors, which again is something that all of us have the opportunity to do,” said Chris Haley, the author’s nephew.

Alex Haley died in 1992 at age 70 after seeing his novel become a way for America to discuss race. When the book was first filmed as a miniseries aired on ABC in January 1977, students discussed it in school, and 100 million people watched the finale.

• Get Patch’s daily newsletter and real-time news alerts, or like us on Facebook.

The updated TV package is condensed into four nights, starting Memorial Day, and will air on History, Lifetime and A&E channels at 9 p.m. ET. Its producers aim to connect with a younger generation that relates to the Black Lives Matter movement more than an outdated 40-year-old TV show, The New York Times says.

The cast includes Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Anika Noni Rose, Anna Paquin, the rapper T.I., and Malachi Kirby as Kunta Kinte, the central character.

»Trailer from the History Channel

The book and original miniseries sparked an interest in genealogy among Americans of all ethnic backgrounds, including Haley’s nephew, Chris Haley, who works as director of The Legacy of Slavery program at the Maryland State Archive in Annapolis.

Haley's staff is compiling an online database from the state archive's Certificates of Freedom and Manumissions, the documents used by  owners to free slaves. His target is to have the database done by the end of the year, which will allow the public to search for the names, descriptions or ages of relatives who were slaves or free people in Maryland.

Haley hopes the database will show people they can be proud that their ancestors survived slavery.

"It doesn't stop at the fact that they were brutalized, it was awful and it was terrible, but they didn't give up," Haley told the Capital-Gazette. "And because of that you can be proud. Not that it doesn't hurt, not that it doesn't bother, not that it doesn't anger, but it's that you can accept that and move on with your lives. They endured it and moved on with their lives."

But when remembering Alex Haley, Chris Haley remembers him as “Uncle Alex” -- a kind and humble individual who would give him $10 bills during his visits to Washington whenever he was scheduled to speak at the Smithsonian.

Chris Haley told Capital News Service, “I often have to remind myself how huge that is.”

A Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial at the City Dock of Annapolis displays a statue of the author telling stories to three young children of different ethnicities from an open book that sits on his lap -- one of the only memorials in the country to pay homage to an enslaved African and his landing in the United States.

And Annapolis will celebrate the 27th annual Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival on Sept. 24, 2016, at Susan Campbell Park - Annapolis City Dock.

For more information, visit:www.kuntakinte.org.

»Photo of Chris Haley, nephew of "Roots" author Alex Haley, courtesy of Capital News Service