Roots. Poster of the 1977 TV series and cover of the 1976 book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family
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Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Alex Haley, 1976
TV series vs book
Marvin J. Chomsky, John Erman, David Greene, Gilbert Moses, 1977

Kunta Kinte is abducted from his African village, sold into slavery, and taken to America. He makes several escape attempts until he is finally caught and maimed. He marries Bell, his plantation’s cook, and they have a daughter, Kizzy, who is eventually sold away from them. Kizzy has a son by her new master, and the boy grows up to become Chicken George.


Roots. Poster of the 2016 TV series and cover of the 1976 book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family
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Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Alex Haley, 1976
TV series vs book
Bruce Beresford, Thomas Carter, Phillip Noyce, Mario Van Peebles, 2016

A historical portrait of one family’s journey through American slavery and their will to survive and preserve their legacy in the face of unimaginable hardship. The series starts in 1760s, and follows the story of Kunta Kinte, a Mandinka warrior from Jufureh in The Gambia, in West Africa, who will be captured and sold to slavery in America.


Roots: The Next Generations. Poster of the 1979 TV series and cover of the 1976 book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family
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Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Alex Haley, 1976
TV series vs book
Ernest Kinoy, 1979

The series continues the story of Alex Haley’s family line from the Post American Civil War era to Alex Haley’s geneological search to discover his roots. Tom, a great-grandson of Kunta Kinte, has become a leader of the black community in Henning. Although he has established a working relationship with the town’s white leader, race relations are strained, due in part to the new Jim Crow laws and similar influences.


Malcolm X. Poster of the 1992 movie and cover of the 1965 book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcolm X, Alex Haley, 1965
movie vs book
Spike Lee, 1992

Malcolm Little is raised in a poor household in rural Michigan by his Caribbean mother and African-American father. When Malcolm is a young boy, their house is burnt down and his father, an activist for black rights, is killed by a chapter of the Black Legion.