In terms of political impact, the three most important literary milestones may well turn out to be, first, the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852; second, the collective Black creative eruption of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s; and now, thirdly, Alex Haley's work of "fact-ion," Roots….

[Whether] this particular work itself continues to be read or not, its impact at the point of its birth has been sufficiently extensive to make it a major sociological event in modern American history. (p. 6)

Part of the impact of Roots is due to the fact that very few Black Americans can trace their origins back to Africa in any personalized or family sense. Because of the nature of the slave-system which prevailed in the United States, Blacks were forced to forget their past. Collective amnesia was imposed on the Black population. Both the book and the...