Alex Haley's Queen

Alex Haley's Queen
VHS cover of Alex Haley's Queen
Genre	Period
Written by	Alex Haley (novel) David Stevens (Teleplay)
Directed by	John Erman
Starring	Halle Berry Danny Glover Tucker Stone Jasmine Guy Tim Daly Martin Sheen Paul Winfield Raven-Symoné Ann-Margret
Theme music composer	Christopher Dedrick
Country of origin	USA
Original language	English
No. of episodes	3
Production
Producers	David L. Wolper Bernard Sofronski
Editors	James Galloway Paul LaMastra
Running time	282 minutes
Original release
Network	CBS
Release	February 14 (1993-02-14) – February 18, 1993 (1993-02-18)

Alex Haley's Queen (also known as Queen) is a 1993 American television miniseries that aired in three installments on February 14, 16, and 18 on CBS. The miniseries is an adaptation of the novel Queen: The Story of an American Family, by Alex Haley and David Stevens. The novel is based on the life of Queen Jackson Haley, Haley's paternal grandmother who was born to a slave owner and his slave. Alex Haley died in February 1992 before completing the novel. It was later finished by David Stevens and published in 1993. Stevens also wrote the screenplay for the miniseries.

Alex Haley's Queen was directed by John Erman, and stars Halle Berry in the title role. It tells the life story of a young woman and it shows the problems which biracial slaves and former slaves faced in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries. Throughout her life, Queen struggles to find a sense of identity among the into two races andcultures.

Plot summary

Act One

The series begins with the friendly relationship between James Jackson, Jr. (Tim Daly), the son of the plantation owner, and one of the slaves, Easter (Jasmine Guy), at the Jackson estate, known as Forks of Cypress, near Florence in northern Alabama. James and Easter have grown up together within the social limits of the plantation culture. Gradually their feelings for one another develop into romance. Easter is the daughter of an African-American house slave, Captain Jack (Paul Winfield), and his true love, Annie, another slave who is part-Cherokee, and who is no longer on the Jackson property.

James Jackson Sr. (Martin Sheen), an Irish immigrant who has accumulated considerable wealth, becomes ill and soon dies. Moments after the passing of James Sr., James Jr. retreats to the comfort of the weaving house where Easter lives and works. James and Easter make love and embark on a boldly flagrant romantic relationship. Several months later, Easter reveals to him that she is pregnant with his child. Meanwhile, James' mother Sally Jackson (Ann-Margret) encourages her son to marry the socially respectable Elizabeth "Lizzie" Perkins (Patricia Clarkson), an heiress to a cotton fortune and daughter of a neighboring planter.

On April 8, 1841, Easter gives birth to a girl. Excited about his new granddaughter, Captain Jack announces to the family and friends during dinner in the "big house" that a slave child has just been born. He makes a point to assure James that Easter's "doing just fine". This displeases Lizzie who has just been announced James's fiancée. Lizzie, having concluded that the new baby is James's child, excuses herself from the table, devastated. Moments later she vows to her mother (Charlotte Moore) that she'll never marry him, but her mother persuades her otherwise. Captain Jack begins to refer to the baby as Princess but when James enters the birth in the record book he writes the name Queen. He pointedly strikes a line through the section calling for the name of the father.

James continues to visit Easter at night, sometimes every night, during both his engagement and his marriage. Although James is Lizzie's husband.. Later Lizzie learns that she has become pregnant. She and James welcome a daughter, Jane. Although Jane and Queen are half-sisters, the family is careful never to acknowledge the relationship.

James later persuades Easter to let Queen live in the main house where she can receive training as a lady's maid to attend to Jane as a personal servant. Both Easter and Lizzie fiercely oppose this plan, to no avail. So at age five Queen (Raven-Symoné) moves into the mansion. Jane and Queen grow up as friends and playmates despite the other slave children's torment of Queen because of her light skin and her ability to read and write. By 1860, the two young ladies, Queen (Halle Berry) and Jane (Jane Krakowski), have matured into attractive young ladies and begin to attract the attention of the young men in Florence--some of whom are not immediately aware of Queen's bi-racial make-up.

In the next year, 1861, Alabama secedes from the United States, the North declares war against the South, and James enters the Confederate Army and heads northward. As James rides away in a cavalry unit and after years of Queen's questioning, Easter confirms to Queen that he is indeed her "pappy". On July 21, 1861, during the First Battle of Bull Run, in Prince William County, Virginia, near Manassas, James sustains an injury and is discharged and sent home. When James arrives at home, he learns that Jane, his second-born daughter, has died during an epidemic of diphtheria. He reaches the weaving house just moments after Easter succumbs to the disease with Queen at her side.

Queen dutifully continues to serve the aging Sally and Lizzie in the big house. In the absence of an overseer, she takes over his function also, supervising the remaining field hands despite the gradually disappearing numbers of slaves. Feeling useless, James forms a regiment and returns to war.

Eventually, the Union Army reaches Florence and the Jackson plantation where the Northern soldiers loot and plunder, insult the ladies and brutalize the slaves for whose benefit they have claimed to fight the war to free them. During an effort to protect Queen from the untoward advances of the men, Captain Jack is brutally beaten with a wooden stick. As a result, Queen's beloved grandfather dies with Queen and Ms. Sally at his bedside.

During another battle, Colonel Jackson sustains another injury, which causes the amputation of his right arm without anesthesia.

Missus Jackson advises Queen to go join the newly freed slaves, saying that there is no place for her at the beleaguered estate now that Captain Jack had passed away. Queen, however, strongly objects, insisting that the plantation is her home and that they are her family. Parson Dick (Ossie Davis), another slave there, warns Queen about the difficulties awaiting her and other "mulattoes", "quadroons", and "octoroons" in the shifting landscape of the American South.

Mr. Henderson (Leo Burmester), former overseer of the Jackson plantation, and his wife Leticia (Linda Hart) have left the Jackson plantation and now run a nearby trading post. The Hendersons freely insult James and Queen as James asks for store credit for groceries, basking in the reversal of roles the recent war has birthed.

During a subsequent solo visit to the trading post, Queen has an unpleasant exchange with Mrs. Henderson who calls her a "common nigger" for speaking up when Mrs. Henderson attempts to cheat her. Several young white men who overhear the argument give chase as Queen leaves the store and holler after her, threatening to "teach her a lesson". Queen escapes on horseback and hides. Tired and hungry, she returns home the next morning. Queen attempts to explain her absence to an uncaring Lizzie but is rebuffed and told to "get back to work." Realizing she'll never be accepted, Queen resolves to leave the Forks of Cypress telling Lizzie, "You ain't never done nothin' for me and you'll never have to now."

While Queen sits at the grave of her mother, Missus Jackson joins her and bids her goodbye. She hands her a small sum of money and stoically comforts Queen as Queen she clings childlike to her legs. James and Queen meet on the driveway of the main house as he returns from a morning-long search for her. Relieved to see that she's safe, James apologizes for not being as protective of her as he could have been. He acknowledges everything she had contributed to the family in his absence and asks that she stay to which she refuses. He offers to drive her into town to which she also refuses. James tells Queen to remember "There is God in everyone" before they both turn and part ways.

Queen happily realizes in Florence how easily she can "pass" as a white Southern belle and resolves to do so. Affecting her speech slightly, she purchases a one-way ticket to Charleston, South Carolina and engages in witty conversation with unsuspecting white passengers.

Act Two

At a charitable soup kitchen Queen meets Alice (Lonette McKee), another fair-skinned young "colored" lady who also passes as white. Alice befriends the naïve young Queen, takes her into her apartment, and teaches her the basics of passing. Queen accompanies Alice to a high society dance hall, where she meets Alice's white gentleman friend, George (Dan Biggers), who secures Queen a job in a flower shop.

While at work Queen meets Digby (Victor Garber), an injured former Confederate soldier, who falls madly for her. He soon proposes marriage to which Queen accepts. When Queen shares this news with Alice, she's advised that such a marriage would be foolish. Alice strongly urges Queen to break the engagement.

Queen decides to go to Digby's apartment intending to break the engagement. Digby begins to seduce Queen with some help from a dose of laudanum. As Queen objects and resists his ravenous advances, she blurts out that her mother was a slave. Digby flies into a rage. He strikes her and rapes Queen who was before now a virgin. Traumatized, Queen returns to Alice who banishes her upon hearing the news in order to protect her own privileged position in society.

After several days of wondering aimlessly, the beleaguered Queen staggers into a meeting of a black church. She receives a helping hand from Joyce (Lorraine Toussaint) who later takes her to the home of two sanctimonious spinster sisters, Misses Mandy (Sada Thompson) and Giffery who hire Queen as a live-in maid.

A few days later Davis (Dennis Haysbert), a gardener and a former slave, arrives in the backyard in search of work. Queen and Davis start a friendship which turns into romance. Queen soon becomes pregnant and--frightened by the potential reaction of her fundamental hosts--seeks an abortion. At the last minute and decides to keep the child and, along with Joyce, confronts Davis who invites her to meet him at the railway station to embark on a life together.

Queen sneaks away to meet David at the appointed time and waits at the train station well into the evening. Davis fails to appear leaving Queen no choice but to return to the sisters' home. After a firm verbal chastising, Miss Mandy and Miss Giffery allow Queen to remain under their employ. In due time the two spinsters, acting as midwives, attend the birth of a healthy boy. Queen wants to give him the name of David but the sisters prefer the name Abner. A white minister christens the baby as Abner as the sisters increasingly bully Queen into allowing them to care for the child. Queen becomes convinced they intend to raise him as their own and is advised by her pastor that there is nothing she can do about it because of the color of her skin. Exasperated, Queen flees with Abner during the night and heads north with six-month-old Abner bundled safely in his mother's arms.

Act Three

At a crossroads store and lunchroom Queen meets Mrs. Benson (Frances Conroy), an upper-middle-class white mother of a 15-month-old son, for whom she needs a wet nurse. Though skeptical, Queen agrees and they ride away toward the Benson home, in Beaufort, South Carolina, which is south, not north, of Charleston [and which is on the way to Savannah, Georgia, but not on a direct way to Savannah, Tennessee].

When Queen and Mrs. Benson arrive in Beaufort, they meet Mr. Benson (Richard Jenkins) amid a crowd of angry black former slaves, striking for more pay and more respect, under the vocal persuasion and agitation of Davis, the father of Abner. Later Queen finds Davis, confronts him, berates him for having abandoned her and Abner, then shares his bed until the next morning.

Mrs. Benson deceives Queen and uses her and Abner in such a way as to enable Mr. Benson, a leader among the local Ku Klux Klan, to find and capture Davis. Mrs. Benson, feigning concern for the security of Davis, urges Queen to leave Abner with her in safety and to hurry to Davis and warn him that he is in imminent danger of a "terrible work" of the Klan. Queen goes, and a Klansman follows. When Queen returns to the Benson home, she learns that Abner is absent, and Mrs. Benson says that Abner "is doing God's work tonight". The next morning Queen goes to Davis' cabin, where she finds his hanged and charred body, along with Abner, inside a wooden chicken cage at his father's feet.

In the next scene Queen and Abner, now a toddler of about two years, walk together and, near Savannah, Hardin County, Tennessee, board a small wooden ferryboat, where they meet Alec Haley (Danny Glover), who operates the ferry, along with his son, Henry (Kenny Blank). While crossing a river Alec asks Queen where she wishes to go, and she answers, "North". Alec senses the general nature of Queen's situation and her motive.

Alec gently persuades Queen to ride back to the south side, saying that in the North she would find only "cold weather and cold-hearted Yankees", so Queen acquiesces. Soon Alec introduces Queen to Dora (Madge Sinclair), the cook in the home of Mr. Cherry (George Grizzard), a widower, where she gets a job as a maid.

Queen, brooding over her regrettable experiences, adopts a defensive and disagreeable attitude, which becomes obvious to everyone around her. Dora tells her, "It's high time you figure out who your friends are, Missy", and Mr. Cherry tells her, "You are the most ornery maid I've ever had". Later Alec describes her to herself as "never talking peaceable to a living soul" and "hating the world for whatever the world done to you". However, Queen responds to those helpful words by allowing a friendship to develop between Alec and herself and by changing her attitudes. Soon Mr. Cherry comments, "She really lights up this old place when she smiles", and suggests, "Let's just hope it continues".

The relationship between Queen and Alec grows into romance, which results not only in a wedding, in which Mr. Cherry gives the bride away, but also, eventually, the birth of another child, whom Queen names as Simon. Queen expresses high hopes for Simon's future, and she predicts that he'll become "magnificent".

When Simon (Jussie Smollett) completes the sixth grade, the point at which black boys in the South typically (in the subject setting) drop out of school to start full-time work in the fields, as did Henry and Abner, Simon's teacher comments to Queen that he is "the best student in the district". Alec vigorously argues with Queen against Simon's staying in school, but Queen presents persuasive logic, and he eventually agrees to "waste" one of the three boys. [In the US high schools did not generally exist until about 1910, and they started in the larger, wealthy cities.]

One day Queen takes Abner and Simon back to the Forks of Cypress, the Jackson plantation, to show them where she was raised and to share her memories of her childhood. When they arrive there, the funeral for James Jackson, her father, takes place, and she pays her respect from a distance. Queen then shows her sons the weaving house, where she lived as a girl, along with her mother Easter's grave and the Jackson mansion. Inside the house Lizzie Jackson accosts her bitterly and tells her that she does not belong there, as the mansion was never truly her home. Queen quickly leaves, feeling again sad and rejected by the white side of her family.

In due time Simon becomes the first black boy in Savannah to complete grade school, and, after another major disagreement at home, Simon begins making plans to go to the normal school in Memphis, Tennessee.

Further, Abner announces that he too wishes to go out into the world to make his own way. Alec reluctantly consents, but Queen strongly objects, likely due in part to her bitter memories of the time when the two spinsters in Charleston tried to take Abner away from her.

That confrontation leads to a conflict among Queen on one hand and Alec and Abner on the other, in which Queen emotionally reveals to Abner that Alec is not his real father. Still feeling upset and agitated and allowing her feelings to divert her attention, while stoking the wood-fired cast-iron cookstove, Queen causes or allows a flame to start a fire, which in turn ignites her long dress. Queen runs out of the house and into the surrounding woodland. The fire in the dress dies out, and Queen sustains only minimal physical injuries. However, undoubtedly recalling the frightful scene in which she discovered the charred and strangled body of Davis hanging from a noose, Queen experiences an emotional, mental, or psychological trauma, which then causes Alec to commit her to a mental-health institution, in Jackson, Tennessee, about 50 miles from home.

Alec realizes, and he says to Queen and Abner separately, that Queen's psychological problems result from certain events in her life which she's never discussed with Alec or anyone else.

After several weeks in the depressing "lunatic asylum", someone on the staff sends a request from Queen to Mr. Cherry to visit her. During a meeting at the hospital Queen politely and humbly tells her former employer about Abner's wish to "find his own place in the world". But Queen and Alec have already given all their cash to Simon for his schooling, so Queen asks Mr. Cherry for a loan of $50, which he graciously agrees to make. Queen tearfully thanks him and compliantly returns to her room.

Soon Queen decides that she needs to go home, so that she can see her sons when they leave, and she convinces the man in charge that the time is right. Alec picks her up and takes her home in a wagon. Queen and Alec take Abner and Simon on the ferryboat across the Tennessee River and, on the west side of the stream, they place their sons aboard a carriage bound for Memphis, about 116 miles due west of Savannah. [In truth at the time of the applicable setting there was in Memphis no normal school which enrolled black students; Simon actually went to Lane College, a black school in Jackson, Tennessee, where he met and began to court Bertha George Palmer, from Henning, Tennessee.]

Back at home the aging couple sit on the front porch, and Queen starts to tell Alec about her life, starting with her time as a slave girl with Jane at the Jackson plantation.

Cast

• Halle Berry as Queen
  • Raven-Symoné as Queen (age 5)
• Christopher Allport as Union Officer
• Ann-Margret as Sally Jackson
• Dan Biggers as George
• Leo Burmester as Henderson
• Patricia Clarkson as Lizzie
• Frances Conroy as Mrs. Benson
• Tim Daly as Col. James Jackson Jr.
• Ossie Davis as Parson Dick
• Victor Garber as Digby
• Danny Glover as Alec Haley
• Ed Grady as Doctor
• John Griesemer as Doctor
• George Grizzard as Mr. Cherry
• Tim Guinee as Wesley
• Jasmine Guy as Easter
• Linda Hart as Mrs. Henderson
• Dennis Haysbert as Davis
• Tommy Hollis as Fred
• Richard Jenkins as Mr. Benson
• Christine Jones as Sarah Jackson
• Jane Krakowski as Jane
• Patrick Malone as Simon
  • Jussie Smollett as Simon (age 11)
• Peter Maloney as Perkins
• Lonette McKee as Alice
• Kenny Blank as Henry (age 11)
• Daryl 'Chill' Mitchell as Abner
• Charlotte Moore as Mrs. Perkins
• Martin Sheen as James Jackson Sr.
• Madge Sinclair as Dora
• Lorraine Toussaint as Joyce
• Eric Ware as Micah
• Paul Winfield as Cap'n Jack
• Samuel E. Wright as Alfred

Home media

The series was released on VHS in August 1993 and was later released on DVD in 2000.

Ratings and viewers

The miniseries averaged a 23.9 rating and 37% share for the three parts.

Episode	Weekly Ratings Ranking[a]	Rating	Number of Viewers	Rating	Share	Date	Network
Queen Part I	#3	24.6 million	36.7 million	24.7%	38%	February 14, 1993	CBS
Queen Part II	#1	22.4 million	35.0 million	24.1%	37%	February 16, 1993	CBS
Queen Part III	#3	21.3 million	33.0 million	22.8%	N/A	February 18, 1993	CBS

^{^[a]} Part I aired a week prior to parts II and III in the ratings.

Awards

Won

Emmy Awards:

• Outstanding Individual Achievement in Hairstyling for a Miniseries or a Special - Linda De Andrea

Image Award's

• Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series
• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries - Danny Glover
• Outstanding Lead Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries - Halle Berry

Nominations

Golden Globe Award's

• Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV - Ann-Margret

Emmy Awards:

• Outstanding Miniseries
• Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special - Ann-Margret
• Outstanding Individual Achievement in Costume Design for a Miniseries or a Special
• Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for a Miniseries or a Special
• Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Editing for a Miniseries or a Special
• Outstanding Individual Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Miniseries or a Special
• Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Miniseries or a Special - Single Camera Production

See also

• Roots (TV miniseries)
• Roots: The Next Generations
• List of films featuring slavery

External links

• Queen at IMDb
• Alex Haley's Queen at AllMovie