Alex Haley (33 page)
Authors: Robert J. Norrell
shooting,
162
themes of episodes,
163
Roots II
(TV miniseries),
205
â7,
209
“Roots Uncovered” (Ottaway),
178
â81
Rosenwald Fellowship,
185
Rosetta Stone,
97
“Rosetta Stone” moment,
125
â26
Rosset, Barney,
90
Roundtree, Richard,
162
Rudolph, Wilma,
42
â43
Rustin, Bayard,
92
Rutledge, Maryse,
30
“Saga of a People” lecture,
122
,
125
,
127
San Francisco State University,
123
Saturday Evening Post,
28
,
30
,
41
,
51
â52,
79
â80,
83
Schickel, Richard,
168
Scott, Scrap,
3
Shabazz, Attallah,
218
Shabazz, Betty,
88
,
128
,
172
,
216
,
218
,
220
Shabazz, El-Hajj Malik El,
74
see also
Malcolm X
Sharieff, Ethel and Raymond,
52
Shirer, William,
55
Show Business Illustrated,
41
,
49
â50
Silverman, Fred,
166
Sims, George,
8
,
39
â40,
60
,
66
,
99
,
110
,
112
â13,
119
,
190
,
193
,
219
â20, 222
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church,
67
Slave Community, The
(Blassingame),
145
Sono, Ndanco,
153
Souls of Black Folk, The
(Du Bois),
48
,
65
Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project,
214
Southern Student Organizing Committee,
214
State University of New York, Cortland,
198
Stone, Chuck,
168
â69
Stone, I. F.,
92
Stone, Irving,
58
“Story Behind the Story of Malcolm X” lecture,
122
Stowe, Harriet Beecher,
81
,
154
â55,
157
,
188
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
102
Students for a Democratic Society,
123
Super Fly T.N.T.
(film),
132
Taylor, Elizabeth,
171
Tennessee Homecoming,
211
â12
Tennessee Valley Authority,
212
Things Fall Apart
(Achebe),
189
“Through the Racial Looking Glass” (Hentoff),
50
Till, Emmett,
31
To Tell the Truth
(TV series),
131
Tropic of Capricorn
(Miller),
90
Truman, Harry S.,
26
Tubman, Harriet,
138
Turner, Carrie White,
4
Turner, Tina,
225
Uncle Tom's Cabin
(Stowe),
99
,
154
â56,
158
“Uncovering Roots” (Nobile),
221
Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA),
48
â49
University of Alabama,
199
University of Arkansas,
43
University of California at Berkeley, 132
University of Connecticut,
124
University of Iowa,
185
University of Michigan,
188
University of Rochester,
145
University of Tennessee,
212
â14,
220
â21
University of Virginia,
214
Vansina, Jan,
101
,
110
,
112
,
118
â19,
126
,
153
,
224
Viking Press,
108
Walker, Jimmie,
209
Wallace, Lila,
105
â6
Ware, Randall,
185
Warren, Robert Penn,
92
“What the Negro Must Do for Himself” lecture (Haley),
105
,
122
White, David,
213
Wilkins, Roy,
62
William Morrow and Company,
109
,
128
Williams, Lucinda,
44
Williams, Miller,
43
â44
Wiser, Waller,
122
â23
Wolper, David,
133
,
135
,
139
,
159
â62,
166
,
170
,
207
,
216
â18,
220
World of Our Fathers
(Howe),
150
World Press Institute,
105
World's Fair,
212
Wright, Donald R.,
198
â99
Wright, Richard,
26
,
30
,
41
,
55
,
61
,
184
â85
Yale University,
145
Young, Lewis,
4
Zimmerman, P. D.,
153
Alex Haley heard his family stories as a child on the front porch of this house. He was buried in front of it in 1992.
Courtesy of Christy Hunter Photography, Munford, Tennessee
Bertha Palmer Haley, the indulged only child of the well-to-do Will Palmer, died when her first child, Alex, was only ten years old.
Courtesy of the Anne Romaine Collection, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
The exciting life of George Lea, “Chicken George,” captured the imagination of his great-great-grandson Alex Haley.
Courtesy of the Anne Romaine Collection, University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
Alex Haley joined the United States Coast Guard at age eighteen in 1939 and developed a successful career as a writer over the next twenty years.
Courtesy of the United States Coast Guard
Despite some tense times early in their collaboration, Malcolm X and Haley became good friends.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
The Autobiography of Malcolm X,
published in 1965 by Grove Press, had modest sales in its first two years before becoming a runaway best seller in the late 1960s.
Roots
was an instant best seller even before the television miniseries was shown, and after that bookstores had difficulty keeping it in stock.
When wide national and international fame came to him, Alex Haley often gave commencement addresses and received many honorary degrees.
Courtesy of the Photographic Department, University of Tennessee Knoxville
Alex Haley became a national celebrity in 1977 and for the remainder of his life was frequently seen on television programs like
Hee-Haw,
as shown here with Minnie Pearl and Archie Campbell, stars of the
Grand Ole Opry.
Courtesy of the State of Tennessee
Alex Haley enjoyed life on his farm near Knoxville when he moved there in the 1980s.
Courtesy of the Photographic Department, University of Tennessee Knoxville
The week after
Roots
aired,
Time
magazine put the phenomenon on its cover and assessed its meaning.
On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the
Roots
miniseries in 2002, Warner Brother reissued the series on DVD.