Part V (1932-1933)

Chapter five finds young Alex Haley a boy of 11 (Christoff St. John) during Depression-era 1932, carefully watching over his ailing mother Bertha (Irene Cara) while his oblivious father Simon (Dorian Harewood) works as a college professor at Alabama A & M in Normal, helping local farmers with techniques learned by earning his Master's Degree. Paul Winfield plays Prof. Horace Huguley, a performance nominated for an Emmy, and Robert Culp also scores as Lyle Pettijohn, who tries to keep things from getting out of hand with landowner D.L. Lewis (Logan Ramsey), who has no regard for the poor people working his land for his personal profit. Ab Decker (Brock Peters) is determined to fight for what's rightly his, especially since President Roosevelt has ensured financial reimbursement for farmers. Alex Haley continues to listen to his family discussing the old African on the Henning front porch, as his mother's strength finally gives out. When we next see Alex Haley, he's a young man struggling to find his way in a world very different from the one his father struggled in.