From the 2016 Roots
“Roots of Freedom” by Lisa Sharon Harper from Sojouners (August 2016). “THE NATION’S FIRST blockbuster television miniseries, Roots, shocked the nation when it started airing on Jan. 23, 1977. Based on Alex Haley’s research on his own family’s story and adapted for television from Haley’s novel, Roots offered the world its first cinematic depiction of Africa and Africans unfiltered through the conduit of Hollywood’s racialized imagination.” A related biblical theme: “Is it nothing to you, all of you who pass by” (Laminations 1:12). Read this article online or print it out at: https://sojo.net/magazine/august-2016/roots-freedom