alex haley...

 Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley born on August 11, 1921 was the writer and author of the 1976 book “Roots: The Saga of an American Family”. ABC television adapted the book as a miniseries which became one of the most watched miniseries in television history. The books helped popularize the study of Black history and genealogy. He also helped pen “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous in depth interviews with Malcolm which became one of the most read autobiographies in American history.

Born in Ithaca, New York, Haley was educated at Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College and at Elizabeth City Teachers College. He served in the United States Coast Guard, where he worked as a journalist. After retiring, Haley moved to New York City to pursue a writing career. One of his first assignments was an interview with the great trumpeter miles Davis for playboy magazine in 1962.

Haley then began researching and writing Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a mixture of fact and fiction, chronicling Haley's ancestral history and the methods he used to trace his lineage back to a West African village. The book chronicled the horrors of Black slavery and its generational impact and also ingratiated the fictional character Kunta Kinte, in the psyches of the world as a symbol of the inhumane brutality of enslavement. Haley received only special citations from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award committees for Roots.

The miniseries, predicted to be a flop by the network, was watched by an estimated 140 million people and was translated into 26 languages. The series went on to receive 43 Emmy nominations and 8 Emmy wins of which Haley received none. Haley however was sued for plagiarism by white author Harold Courlander in which he settled out of court. Alex Haley died on February 10, 1992.