Iowa police have charged a man with harassment and false imprisonment after they say he kidnapped a woman and forced her to watch a late 1970s miniseries about slavery.
The Gazette, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, newspaper, reports 52-year-old Robert Lee Noye was arrested Monday.
According to the criminal complaint, Noye forced the woman to sit with him and watch “Roots,” the nine-hour historical series that covers slavery in the United States through the post-Civil War era, “so she could better understand her racism.”
It was definitely premeditated. You don’t just kidnap someone and make them watch Roots just like that. He clearly mapped it out.
— Kudzaishe Trevor (@trevkudzi) February 18, 2020
“Roots” is based on author Alex Haley’s family history, from the capture and enslavement of his ancestor Kunta Kinte in Africa to the liberation of Kinte’s descendants.
Noye told the victim he would “kill her and spread her body parts across Interstate 380 on the way to Chicago” if she did not comply with his demands to watch the show.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
