“Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.” Alex Haley
Point 1
Alexander Murray Palmer “Alex” Haley was born in Ithaca, New York, and raised in the small town of Henning, Tennessee. His father managed the family lumber business while his mother was a schoolteacher.
Point 2
Alex Haley was an American writer. He is best known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family and as the co-author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
Point 3
He enrolled at Alcorn State University, a historically black college in Mississippi at 15 years of age. Then, a year later, he enrolled at Elizabeth City State College, also historically black, in North Carolina. He didn’t feel like college was for him, so next, he joined the Coast Guard at 18 years of age. At the conclusion of World War II, the Coast Guard permitted Haley to transfer into the field of journalism, and by 1949 he had achieved the rank of first class petty officer in the rate of journalist.
Point 4
Two years after the book was published, Roots had already won 271 awards, and its television adaptation had been nominated for a record-breaking thirty-seven Emmys, the top awards for television programming. Over eight million copies of the book were in print, and the text was translated into twenty-six languages.
Point 5
At the age of 70, he died of a cardiac arrest at Swedish Hospital Medical Center in Seattle.
Sources of citation
Alex Haley – Black History – HISTORY.com
Alex Haley Biography
Alex Haley Biography – life, family, story, history, school, mother, son …
Alex Haley | American author | Britannica.com
Alex Haley – Wikipedia