The Lifetime movie Showing Roots is set in the South in 1977, the same year the TV mini-series Roots aired on national TV. In Showing Roots, two young women (one white, Violet played by Maggie Grace; one black, Pearl played by Uzo Aduba) meet while working at beauty shop owned by a white woman named Shirley. When Violet gets the opportunity to open her own place, she and Pearl set out to make it integrated — where both white and black women can come to get their hair done. The new business is not received well by many in town.
Shirley is portrayed by Elizabeth McGovern. She’s known for her roles on Downton Abbey (Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham), and in the films The Handmaid’s Tale (Moira), She’s Having a Baby with Kevin Bacon (Kristy Briggs), Native Son (Mary Dalton), Ragtime (Evelyn Nesbit), and the Aacademy Award-winning Best Picture, Ordinary People (Jeannine), among others. Showing Roots will premiere on Lifetime on Thursday, May 26 at 10pm.
— A remake of Roots starring Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, and Anna Paquin, will air on The History Channel on Monday, May 30 at 9pm. See trailer below.
