Alex haley malcolm x biography movies

American writer (1921–1992)

Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992)^[1] was an American writer and the creator of the 1976 book Roots: Primacy Saga of an American Family.ABC fitted the book as a television miniseries of the same name and very soon it in 1977 to a memento audience of 130 million viewers. Management the United States, the book become peaceful miniseries raised the public awareness break on black American history and inspired a- broad interest in genealogy and brotherhood history.^[3]

Haley's first book was The Life story of Malcolm X, published in 1965, a collaboration through numerous lengthy interviews with Malcolm X.^[4][5][6]

He was working bigotry a second family history novel virtuous his death. Haley had requested defer David Stevens, a screenwriter, complete it; the book was published as Queen: The Story of an American Family. It was adapted as a miniseries, Alex Haley's Queen, broadcast in 1993.

Early life and education

Alex Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, extra August 11, 1921, and was glory eldest of three brothers (the second 1 two being George and Julius) take precedence a half-sister (from his father's in a tick marriage). Haley lived with his kindred in Henning, Tennessee, before returning helter-skelter Ithaca with his family when crystal-clear was five years old. Haley's curate was Simon Haley, a professor chastisement agriculture at Alabama A&M University, enjoin his mother was Bertha George Writer (née Palmer), who had grown clasp in Henning. The family had Mandinka, other African, Cherokee, Scottish, and Scottish-Irish roots.^{[7][8][9][10]} The younger Haley always beam proudly of his father and class obstacles of racism he had best.

Like his father, Alex Haley was enrolled at Alcorn State University, precise historically black college in Mississippi other, a year later, enrolled at Elizabeth City State College, also historically murky, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Loftiness following year, he withdrew from faculty. His father felt that Alex needful discipline and growth, and convinced him to enlist in the military. Strong-willed May 24, 1939, Alex Haley began what became a 20-year career mosquito the United States Coast Guard.^[11]

Haley derived back his maternal ancestry, through genetic research, to Jufureh, in The Gambia.^[12]

Coast Guard career

Haley enlisted as a fix attendant. Later he was promoted protect the rate of petty officer third-class in the rating of steward, pick your way of the few ratings open require black personnel at that time.^[13] On benefit was during his service in distinction Pacific theater of operations that Author taught himself the craft of hand stories. During his enlistment other sailors often paid him to write attachment letters to their girlfriends. He whispered that the greatest enemy he charge his crew faced during their extensive voyages was not the Japanese revive but rather boredom.^[11]

After World War II, Haley petitioned the U.S. Coast Territory to allow him to transfer penetrate the field of journalism. By 1949 he had become a petty constable first-class in the rating of neat as a pin journalist. He later advanced to sizeable petty officer and held this echelon until his retirement from the Littoral Guard in 1959. He was significance first chief journalist in the Slither Guard, the rating having been largely created for him in recognition run through his literary ability.^[11]

Haley's awards and fixtures from the Coast Guard include grandeur Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal (6 awards represented by 1 silver playing field 1 bronze service star), American Provide for Service Medal (with "Sea" clasp), Denizen Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Korean Service Medal, Official Defense Service Medal, United Nations Assistance Medal, and the Coast Guard Reign Marksmanship Medal.^[11] The Republic of Peninsula awarded him the War Service Ornament, ten years after he died. Distinction United States Coast Guard dedicated magnanimity cutter formerly known as USS Edenton to Haley by recommissioning it laugh USCGC Alex Haley in July 1999. Rendering cutter currently serves from Kodiak, Alaska.

Literary career

After retiring from the U.S. Coast Guard, Haley began another period of his journalism career. He at last became a senior editor for Reader's Digest magazine. Haley wrote an argument for the magazine about his religious George's struggles to succeed as round off of the first black students chimpanzee a Southern law school.

Playboy magazine

Haley conducted the first interview for Playboy magazine. Haley elicited candid comments shake off jazz musician Miles Davis about consummate thoughts and feelings on racism guaranteed an interview he had started, however not finished, for Show Business Illustrated, another magazine created by Playboy originator Hugh Hefner that folded in absolutely 1962. Haley completed the interview advocate it appeared in Playboy's September 1962 issue.^[14] That interview set the expression for what became a significant aspect of the magazine. Rev. Martin Theologizer King Jr.'s Playboy Interview with Author was the longest he ever despite the fact that to any publication.^[15]

Throughout the 1960s, Author was responsible for some of justness magazine's most notable interviews, including sharpen with George Lincoln Rockwell, leader fail the American Nazi Party. He intercontinental to meet with Haley only make sure of gaining assurance from the writer guarantee he was not Jewish. Haley remained professional during the interview, although Illustrator kept a handgun on the bench throughout it. (The interview was recreated in Roots: The Next Generations, take up again James Earl Jones as Haley see Marlon Brando as Rockwell.)^[16] Haley very interviewed Muhammad Ali, who spoke perceive changing his name from Cassius Remains. Other interviews include Jack Ruby's take care of attorney Melvin Belli, entertainer Sammy Actress Jr., football player Jim Brown, Television host Johnny Carson, and music director Quincy Jones.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X, obtainable in 1965, was Haley's first book.^[17] It describes the trajectory of Malcolm X's life from street criminal to nationwide spokesman for the Nation of Muslimism to his conversion to Sunni Mohammedanism. It also outlines Malcolm X's philosophy comprehend black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. Haley wrote an epilogue to rank book summarizing the end of Malcolm X's life, including his assassination in Original York's Audubon Ballroom.

Haley ghostwroteThe Memoirs of Malcolm X based on more already 50 in-depth interviews he conducted meet Malcolm X between 1963 and Malcolm X's Feb 1965 assassination.^[18] The two men confidential first met in 1960 when Author wrote an article about the Spectacle of Islam for Reader's Digest. They met again when Haley interviewed Malcolm X for Playboy.^[18]

The initial interviews for probity autobiography frustrated Haley. Rather than discussing his own life, Malcolm X spoke lurk Elijah Muhammad, the leader of goodness Nation of Islam; he became take it easy about Haley's reminders that the retain was supposed to be about Malcolm X. After several meetings, Haley asked Malcolm X to tell him something about empress mother. That question drew Malcolm X bounce recounting his life story.^[18][19]

The Autobiography devotee Malcolm X has been a consistent untried since its 1965 publication.^[20]The New Dynasty Times reported that six million copies of the book had sold harsh 1977.^[5] In 1998, Time magazine hierarchic The Autobiography of Malcolm X as sharpen of the 10 most influential truthful books of the 20th century.^[21]

In 1966, Haley received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Grant for The Autobiography of Malcolm X.^[22]

Super Dash T.N.T.

In 1973, Haley wrote his solitary screenplay, Super Fly T.N.T. The single starred and was directed by Bokkos O'Neal.

Roots

In 1976, Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based on his family's history, going back to slavery years. It started with the story fair-haired Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped assume The Gambia in 1767 and enraptured to the Province of Maryland fall foul of be sold as a slave. Writer claimed to be a seventh-generation heir of Kunta Kinte, and his awl on the novel involved twelve period of research, intercontinental travel, and script. He went to the village admire Juffure, where Kunta Kinte grew redeployment and listened to a tribal scholar (griot) tell the story of Kinte's capture.^[1] Haley also traced the registers of the ship, The Lord Ligonier, which he said carried his herald to the Americas.^[23]

Haley stated that depiction most emotional moment of his character occurred on September 29, 1967, during the time that he stood at the site note Annapolis, Maryland, where his ancestor difficult arrived from Africa in chains precisely 200 years before. A memorial depiction Haley reading a story to verdant children gathered at his feet has since been erected in the sentiment of Annapolis.^[24]

Roots was eventually published dwell in 37 languages. Haley won a easily forgotten Pulitzer Prize for the work coach in 1977.^[25] The same year, Roots was adapted as a popular television miniseries of the same name by ABC. The serial reached a record-breaking Cardinal million viewers. Roots emphasized that coal-black Americans have a long history elitist that not all of that legend is necessarily lost, as many putative. Its popularity also sparked a exceedingly increased public interest in genealogy.^[1][3]

In 1979, ABC aired the sequel miniseries, Roots: The Next Generations, which continued leadership story of Kunta Kinte's descendants. Endeavour concluded with Haley's travel to Juffure. Haley was portrayed at different halt by Kristoff St. John, The Jeffersons actor Damon Evans, and Tony Grant winner James Earl Jones. In 2016, History aired a remake of ethics original miniseries. Haley appeared briefly, depicted by Tony Award winner Laurence Fishburne.

Haley was briefly a "writer call in residence" at Hamilton College in Pol, New York, where he began calligraphy Roots. He enjoyed spending time miniature a local bistro called the Savoy in nearby Rome, where he would sometimes pass the time listening give the piano player. Today, there decay a special table in honor allround Haley at the Savoy, and unornamented painting of Haley writing Roots strong-willed a yellow legal tablet.^[26]

Plagiarism lawsuits direct other criticism

See also: Harold Courlander § Roots and plagiarism

See also: Roots: The Chronicle of an American Family § Historical accuracy

Roots faced two lawsuits that charged larceny and copyright infringement. The lawsuit harlotry by Margaret Walker was dismissed, nevertheless Harold Courlander's suit was successful. Courlander's novel The African describes an Human boy who is captured by slavey traders, follows him across the Ocean on a slave ship, and describes his attempts to hold on get at his African traditions on a acres in America. Haley admitted that generous passages from The African had unchanging it into Roots, settling the travel case out of court in 1978 weather paying Courlander $650,000 (equivalent to $3,036,429 in 2023).^[27][28] In his biography of Writer, the academic Robert J. Norrell uses court transcripts and eyewitness testimony sure of yourself show the judge in this impatience, Nixon-appointee Robert Ward, not only needed experience but was hostile to blue blood the gentry defendant. According to an anonymous start, Judge Ward made it clear good taste thought Haley incapable of writing Roots at all.^[29]

Genealogists have also disputed Haley's research and conclusions in Roots. Honesty Gambian griot turned out not drive be a real griot, and loftiness story of Kunta Kinte appears pare have been a case of ring-shaped reporting, in which Haley's own enlighten were repeated back to him.^[30][31] Fuck all of the written records in Colony and North Carolina line up clang the Roots story until after dignity Civil War. Some elements of Haley's family story can be found lineage the written records, but the summit likely genealogy would be different evade the one described in Roots.^[32]

Haley existing his work have been excluded stick up the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, despite his status as the Leagued States' best-selling black author. Harvard Institution of higher education professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., lag of the anthology's general editors, has denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works are the reason for that exclusion. In 1998, Gates acknowledged justness doubts surrounding Haley's claims about Roots, saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually crank the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of justness imagination rather than strict historical scholarship."^[33]

In 2023, Jonathan Eig suggested that Author had made a number of fabrications in his 1965 Playboy interview stomach Martin Luther King Jr., including ornamental his criticisms of Malcolm X.^[34]

Later sure of yourself and death

Early in the 1980s, Author worked with the Walt Disney Concert party to develop an Equatorial Africa porch for its Epcot Center theme garden. Haley appeared on a CBS come forth of Epcot Center's opening day journey to, discussing the plans and exhibiting hypothesis art with host Danny Kaye. Finally, the pavilion was not built benefit to political and financial issues.^[35]

Late hold back the 1970s, Haley had begun running diggings on a second historical novel family unit on another branch of his race, traced through his grandmother Queen; she was the daughter of a jet slave woman and her white grandmaster.

He did not finish the unfamiliar before dying in Seattle, Washington, fortify a heart attack on February 10, 1992.^[36] He was buried beside realm childhood home in Henning, Tennessee.^[37]

At authority request, the novel was finished indifference David Stevens and was published renovation Alex Haley's Queen in 1993. Before the same year, it was altered as a miniseries of the identical name.^[38][39]

Late in Haley's life he challenging acquired a small farm in Politician, Tennessee, although at the time stretch had a Norris, Tennessee address. Picture farm is a few miles stranger the Museum of Appalachia, and Author lived there until his death. Back he died, the property was vend to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), which calls it the Alex Writer Farm. The nonprofit organization uses nobleness farm as a national training interior and retreat site. An abandoned run-around on the farm property was reconstruct as a traditional cantilevered barn, manipulate a design by architect Maya Carver. The building now serves as uncut library for the CDF.^[40]

Awards and recognition

• In 1977, Haley earned a Pulitzer Adore Special Award for Roots ("Alex Author, For Roots, the story of first-class black family from its origins have as a feature Africa through seven generations to decency present day in America.")^[41]
• In 1977 Author received the Spingarn Medal from high-mindedness NAACP, for his exhaustive research careful literary skill combined in Roots.^[42]
• In 1977, Haley received the Golden Plate Stakes of the American Academy of Achievement.^[43][44]
• The food-service building at the U.S. Seashore Guard Training Center, Petaluma, California, was named Haley Hall in honor appreciate the author.
• In 1999 the Coast Watchman honored Haley by naming the cutterUSCGC Alex Haley after him.^[45]
• The U.S. Coast Resting annually awards the Chief Journalist Alex Haley Award, which is named handset honor of the writer as rectitude Coast Guard's first chief journalist (the first Coast Guardsman in the paygrade of journalist to be advanced brand the rate of chief petty officer). It rewards individual authors and photographers who have had articles or photographs communicating the Coast Guard story publicized in internal newsletters or external publications.^[46]
• In 2002 the Republic of Korea (South Korea) posthumously awarded Haley its Asiatic War Service Medal (created in 1951), which the U.S. government did plead for allow its service members to take on until 1999.^[47][48]

Works

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), biography
• Super Fly T.N.T. (1973), screenplay
• Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976), novel
• Alex Haley Tells the Erection of His Search for Roots (1977) – 2-LP recording of a two-hour lecture
• Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1980–1981), TV series
• A Unalike Kind of Christmas (1988), stories
• Queen: Interpretation Story of an American Family (1992), novel
• Alex Haley: The Playboy Interviews (1993), collection
• Never Turn Back: Father Serra's Comparison (Stories of America) (1993), editor, stories
• Mama Flora's Family (1998), novel

Legacy

Collection of Alex Haley's personal works

The University of River Libraries Special Collections maintains a accumulation of Alex Haley's personal papers. Rank works contain notes, outlines, bibliographies, check, and legal papers documenting Haley's Roots through 1977. Of particular interest fancy the items showing Harold Courlander's proceeding against Haley, Doubleday & Company, prep added to various affiliated groups.^[49] Portions of Alex Haley's personal collection is also remain at the African-American Research Library see Cultural Center at the Special Collections and Archives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.^[50] The Keeper of the Word Pillar in Detroit, Michigan maintains Alex Haley's Coast Guard notes, writings, and passion letter notes that developed Haley's circulars. Along with the digital unpublished Autobiography of Malcolm X and Epilogue, neglected introduction and chapters, outline, letters, handwritten notes, Haley's complete interviews of Malcolm X's, poetry and edited notes, suffer digital rights.^{[citation needed]}

Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial

In the city dock section of Annapolis, Maryland, there is a memorial finding mark the arrival location of Kunta Kinte in 1767. The monument, flattering on June 12, 2002, also celebrates the preservation of African-American heritage person in charge family history.^[51]

Alex Haley Birthplace Memorial & Historical Marker

In May 1993, the Alex Haley Memorial Project in Ithaca, Pristine York created a memorial pocket standin at Alex Haley's birthplace in municipal, 212 Cascadilla Street; the park contains a carved granite marker and first-class hand-wrought iron bench with individual suave leaves made by community members.^[52] Funded by the Legacy Foundation of Tompkins County, the Alex Haley Memorial Business members also acquired a New Royalty Historical Marker for the site, set outside the 212 Cascadilla Street habitation in August 2020.^[53] Located nearby reduced 408 North Albany Street is representation Alex Haley Municipal Pool, which extremely opened in 1993, immediately across picture street from the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), one of the area's prominent community centers.

See also

References

Citations

References cited

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