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Howard Sociologist Clifton Jones thought that Roots had a psychological impact second only to the black-is-beautiful movement of the '60s. Said he: "To see the spirit with which their much-maligned ancestors survived slavery is a great corrective to any lingering inferiority that blacks feel." This memory was shared with whites. Said Allen Counter, a black biologist at Harvard: "It sounded like us, it looked like us, it was us. We've always wanted whites to understand how our backgrounds are different from theirs. Now they should understand a little better where we are coming from."
Among many blacks, Roots has kindled an intense desire to search out their genealogies. Actually, American blacks' interest in their African heritage began years ago; among the most vivid manifestations were the dashikis and African names that became popular in the 1960s. Hence Roots and the reaction to it are in a sense as much effect as cause.
Reflecting the new interest in genealogy, letters to the National Archives in Washington requesting information have tripled, to 2,300 a week; applications for permits to use the research facilities have jumped by 40%, to 560 a week. Most blacks, however, may not be able to trace their family trees before the Civil War. One reason: until 1870 the federal census listed most blacks by age and sex but not by name. Free blacks were an exception, but they were not very numerous. Some won their freedom through service in the Revolutionary War; nobody knows the precise number, but there were at least 5,000 who fought with the patriots.
Because of the scanty records for most blacks, however, many despair of ever uncovering their roots. Said Mary Gaines, 20, a black secretary at Northeastern University's African-American Institute in Boston: "I know about my great-grandmother, but beyond that it's a dead end. All the old people in my family are gone. I probably won't ever know."
Executives at all three commercial TV networks immediately began looking for ways to cash in on the new interest in black history. Paul Monash, a CBS vice president, began dickering with Author William Styron for the TV rights to his 1967-68 bestseller, The Confessions of Nat Turner. Said Monash: "Part of Roots' brilliance was in the programming. ABC caused an explosion by compressing the presentation so that the drama had built-in impact. I never liked the format of one hour a week, as in Rich Man, Poor Man. Waiting a week dispels interest; waiting a day heightens interest."
Because of Roots, Frank Price, president of Universal Television, expects to have an easier time selling a series called All God's Children, which is based on the struggles of a black Southern sharecropper. Roots also gave fresh impetus to another Universal production, The New Americans, a dramatic series with separate installments on blacks, Irish, Italians, Jews and Puerto Ricans.