Roots dominated US culture as the most watched show in television history

Evidence

Roots: The Saga of an American Family shared the thrilling, tragic, and tumultuous story of Kunta Kinte, from his kidnapping in Gambia to his brutal crippling, which ended his incessant runaway attempts in Virginia. Claiming Kinte as his actual ancestor, Haley followed his life and the life of his descendants in US history down to himself. For African Americans in the radiance of Black Power’s broadening turn to antiracist Pan-African ideas, and starved for knowledge about their life before and during slavery, Roots was a megahit, one of the most influential works of the twentieth century. — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1059

Categorization

• SHARE: For a friend into media history—Roots becoming the most watched show in US TV history and topping the fiction bestseller list is a neat cultural data point.