There is a saying, don’t forget where you come from otherwise you’ll never remember where you’re going. This is the essence of the television mini-series "Roots."

"Roots" is a dramatization of author, Alex Haley’s family line, starting at the enslavement of Kunta Kinte, played by LeVar Burton (aka, the reading rainbow guy) to the liberation of his descendants. "Roots" originally aired in 1977 and almost forty years later the series is recreated for a modern audience with an entire new cast.

As with most remakes, I had some worries about the new "Roots" but I was also glad that stories of black people and our African ancestors were being told. On a Tuesday evening I was searching though the television guide and landed on the History Channel. I curled up on the couch wrapped in a fleeced blanket, which also did double duty as a tissue.

So far I have the watched the first and second installment of the series and it’s gut wrenching. I can feel Kunta Kinte’s pain on the whipping post trying to hold on to his name-his only connection to his past. I can feel the pain Kizzy feels as she contemplates the decision to whether to kill her child or have him grow up in a life of slavery and oppression

"Roots" is not just a solemn slave story. There are many happy moments, which showcases the resiliency of African Americans as a people to find some good out of a bad situation. Songs were sung, weddings were celebrated, and children were born. They didn’t have freedom but they had each other.

The amazing thing about "Roots" is the generational progression, as each descendent. "Roots" is helping a new audience realize that everything we are is because of those who pave the way and sacrificed. "Roots" and is taking black magic to a whole new level. For more information about "Roots" visit the History Channel