"Roots: The Next Generation" begins where Roots, by Alex Haley ended. The year is 1882, and under the emancipation proclamation, slavery has been abolished. But the saying "the more things change the more they stay the same" is apropos in the years that followed the end of slavery. "The Next Generation" can be viewed as a series of snapshots of life in America over about a hundred-year period.

The first period of the story starts 12 years after the end of Roots, where we revisit Henning, Tennessee (the town where Kunta Kinte’s descendents had come to settle). Here we follow the lives of two families. Tom Harvey, the son of Chicken George, the grandson of Kizzy, and the great grandson of Kunta Kinte, is now the family leader. But although they are free, the family is exposed to the inequities that existed under the Jim Crow laws.

Confederate Col. Warner, a former plantation owner, serves as an example of the dichotomy that existed between the lives of the blacks vs. those of the whites. As a strong example of the symbolic interweaving of the two races in the south, Warner is forced to deal with the fact that one of his sons has decided to marry a black woman. Warner tells his son that he has disowned him because of this marriage. But it is impossible for the old south to shut the doors to the new age that is dawning. Once this point is conveyed, the Warner family fades from the story which continues with a focus on Harvey’s descendents.

The theme of hope and betterment is prevalent throughout the story. Tom Harvey begins to exemplify this theme by being a strong proponent for education. Harvey knows that education can improve the lives of his children as well as the black community in which he lives. The struggle of black against white is also seen throughout the years of this story. The KKK are portrayed as well as Nazism in World War II. Yet as we follow the lives of the offspring of Kunta Kinte, we see that there is some hope of improvement. One of Harvey’s daughters marries a man who becomes successful in the lumber business. They in turn have a daughter who marries a poor sharecropper’s son named Simon Haley. Haley also believes that education holds the key to his future and works hard to upgrade his lot. Haley enlists in World War I because of his strong belief in helping the betterment of society. The poor treatment of black troops is exemplified during this part of the story. Haley survives the war and returns to marry Bertha. They soon give birth to Alexander Murray Palmer Haley.

Alex grows to carry the family torch and eagerly learns the stories of their ancestral tree that leads back to Africa. As a young man, Alex is drawn to writing and involves himself with the civil rights issues that were at the forefront of American history in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Ultimately, Alex begins a twelve year quest to document his own family story. At the high-point of his life, he has found his way back to Africa and there he finds his own family roots. "You old African!" Alex cries to a man he believes is related to him, "I found you, Kunta Kinte! I found you!" The family that had been broken apart, and forced into slavery, so many years ago, had finally been re-united with Haley’s return to his ancestral homeland.

This story is enthralling as our moods shift from joy to sorrow and back again. When we finally reach the end of this tale, we have spent so much time learning about the struggle of one family, that we too have experienced, in a vicarious way, the meaning of the search for our family roots.