Man arrested after he forced woman to watch ‘Roots’ to ‘understand her racism,’

A Cedar Rapids (IA) man was arrested Monday and accused of holding a woman captive and forcing her to watch “Roots” — a nine-hour miniseries that chronicles author Alex Haley’s family line from the capture and enslavement of his ancestor Kunta Kinte to the liberation of Kinte’s descendants.

Robert Lee Noye, 52, allegedly forced the woman to sit with him, at a residence and watch the series “so she could better understand her racism,” according to a criminal complaint obtained by The Gazette.

When she tried to move, the suspect told her to “remain seated and watch the movie with him or he would kill her and spread her body parts across Interstate 380 on the way to Chicago.”

Noye faces charges of first-degree harassment and false imprisonment.