A Lesson In Black History [Source: Chicago Tribune, Feb. 27, 1994. R.B. Preston]

For actor Henry G. Sanders, who plays town blacksmith Robert E. on the CBS frontier series "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," the role is always kept in perspective. "I have one of those faces where people say, 'Don't I know you from somewhere-do you go to my church or something?" he said over breakfast recently. "So I say, 'I don't know, where do you live?' Subtly mischievous, funny and sometimes bittersweet, this veteran actor has a quiet triumph about him. And despite his humor, he takes his work very seriously. "It's really nice to do a role like this because I'm fanatical about research," he said with rising enthusiasm on a cold Sunday morning in Chicago." I try to make the character as real and rounded as possible, so I study the mountain men, the Red Coats, Black Coats, Indians, everyone from that period."

Sanders, whose Robert E. is a frontier precursor to Malcolm X in that he has dropped his last name to highlight a heritage truncated by bondage, brings warmth and humanity to his humble character. He sees his television role as pioneering. "I think that people are now willing to accept a black blacksmith in the West because they know how history has been distorted," he said. "Even if they haven't read anything, there've been rumors that there were black people in the West."

Acknowledging the work of black actors and directors who have paved the way for him, Sanders said that Hollywood appears more hospitable to African-Americans and other racial minorities today than in the past, but that the recent phenomenon may be another fad. "There's a lot that's been laid out for me, but is it any easier now for an African-American in Hollywood?" he asks. "Well, we're the flavor of the month, in front of the camera and behind. We see more shows and movies dealing with black people, even though they fit into types. We should still remember that there are only a very few of us--maybe one or two-who can greenlight a movie. I hope that the changes will be sustained, I hope that they widen."

Sanders, 51, points to predecessors he would like to imitate, if not emulate, who have used their television shows as training grounds. "Someone like Bill Duke (director of hundreds of television and Hollywood features, including 'Sister Act 2,' 'A Rage In Harlem,' 'A Raisin In The Sun' and 'Deep Cover') took advantage of being in a series situation and came out of it directing shows. I've directed a lot of stuff and 'Scotch and Milk' is running at the Richard Pryor Theatre."

"Scotch and Milk," a dramatic comedy (Sanders calls it a "dramady") set in the South Bronx, tracks a black family that moves into well-heeled white communities and, playing to crass stereotypes, puts up bright, red signs announcing a chicken shack. As soon as their new neighbors pay them off- their only objective-the family moves on.

Sanders says that this type of play, which delves into racial expectations and stereotyping, con schemes and other moral issues, is at the heart of the depth he would like to bring to his work. Already, he points out, Robert E. has married the woman he loves, despite religious officials not wanting to perform the ceremony inside the town's main church.

Sanders, who works with the show's title-role star, Jane Seymour, also hopes to direct one or maybe two episodes of "Dr. Quinn." The show, which airs locally at 7 p.m. Saturday nights on WBBM-Ch. 2, has been a trailblazer in its unconventional portrayal of a high-profile woman in a frontier setting. Sanders says that this is but one of the historical inaccuracies that the show corrects without beating you over the head with it.

Yet the obstacles that Sanders confronts onscreen seem small, when compared to his own tribulations. A veteran of the Vietnam War, Sanders gets edgy even now when recalling that "harrowing" tour. "It took 10 years before I told anybody that I'd been to 'Nam; I couldn't even talk about it with my family," Sanders said, adding that at the end of his tour he did not even want to return to the United States.

"In 'Nam, everybody carried weapons, so you knew what to expect. I wasn't going to accept a situa- tion that was hostile to me. But here. . .?" Sanders eventually came home to be with his family, but he experience marked him tremendously, he said. "I was 27 years old when I got out of the service (in 1969). My father had died when I was over there and I felt it the moment he did. I understand my Dad more now," Sanders said of his father, who was divorced from his mother when he was seven, "because I have a daughter. There was a time when, after my wife and I split, we didn't see each other much. I told her (his daughter), 'I know that I'm your father but I haven't been a daddy to you."'

As part of his own self-realization program, Sanders studied cinema at Los Angeles City College and took related courses at UCLA. "That's when I began to see where my strengths were," he said. "Ultimately all of these things gave me my center. And whatever trauma I may have gone through, everything comes to bear on my work in a fruitful way. That must be some of the reason why I'm so hopeful and driven."

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