Biography of Alex Haley, African American Writer and Historian

When I was growing up in the 1970's, Roots WAS Black History. The movie and the book Roots by Alex Haley taught African Americans about the history of slavery and gave us insight into how it still affected us. In addition to Roots: The Saga of an American Family, Alex Haley wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X (with Malcolm X as a collaborator), Queen: The Story of an American Family (completed by David Stevens after Haley's death), and several other books as well.

Alex Haley was born in 1921 in Ithaca New York. He spent his first five years in Henning Tennessee. His father was an agriculture professor and World War I veteran. Alex began college at the age if 15, but withdrew so his father had him enlist in the military. He served for 20 years in the Coast Guard. Alex Haley began writing as a mess attendant (one of the few offices a black person was allowed), and before long was hired by other soldiers to write letters to their girlfriends. After World War II, Haley transferred into the position of Petty Officer First Class in the rate of Journalist.

When he retired from the Coast Guard, he became a senior editor for Readers Digest. His early work included interviewing Miles Davis for Playboy in September 1962, as the first interview for the magazine. He wrote several other articles for Playboy including a very long interview with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and an article with Muhammad regarding his name change from Cassius Clay. An interview with Malcolm X led to his writing Malcolm X's biography.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family published in 1976 and was loosely based on the history of his won family. Roots was an instant success and was published in several languages, won a Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into a miniseries in 1977. The miniseries reached 130 million viewers and was followed by Roots: The Next Generation where James Earl Jones portrayed Alex Haley. After the success of Roots, Haley began working on the story of his grandmother Queen. He died of a heart attack before he could complete the story.