What did Alex Haley mean to the History of American Literature?

2016-04-19T13:48:36-04:00

Alexander Murray Palmer "Alex" Haley was an American writer known as the author of the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The book was adapted by ABC as a TV mini-series of the same name and aired in 1977 to a record-breaking 130 million viewers. It had great influence on awareness in the United States of African-American history and inspired a broad interest in genealogy and family

Response by SSG Ed Mikus made Apr 19 at 2016 2:17 PM

2016-04-19T14:17:26-04:00

This man's impact is immeasurable as his works were dispersed and known across the country and maybe further. A few of his words have affected someone each of us knows therefore affected us. Maybe we can spread his words further.

Response by SSG John Jensen made Apr 19 at 2016 2:41 PM

2016-04-19T14:41:42-04:00

Coast Guard retiree - maybe the 1st Black PO3 in the Coast Guard in WWII, definately the 1st Black CPO in the Coast Guard

Response by LTC Stephen C. made Apr 19 at 2016 3:05 PM

2016-04-19T15:05:52-04:00

SPC Andrew Griffin, Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for "Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based on his family's history, going back to slavery days. It started with the story of Kunta Kinte, who was kidnapped in the Gambia in 1767 and transported to the Province of Maryland to be sold as a slave. Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, and his work on the novel involved twelve years of research, intercontinental travel and writing. He went to the village of Juffure, where Kunta Kinte grew up and listened to a tribal historian (griot) tell the story of Kinte's capture.
Roots faced two lawsuits that charged plagiarism and copyright infringement. One of the lawsuits was dismissed. However, Harold Courlander's suit was more successful. Courlander's novel, The African, describes an African boy who is captured by slave traders, follows him across the Atlantic on a slave ship, and then describes his attempts to hold on to his African traditions on a plantation in America. Haley admitted that some passages from The African had made it into Roots, settling the case out of court.
Genealogists have also disputed Haley's research and conclusions in Roots. The Gambian griot turned out not to be a real griot, and the story of Kunta Kinte appears to have been a case of circular reporting, in which Haley's own words were repeated back to him. None of the written records in Virginia and North Carolina line up with the Roots story until after the Civil War. Some elements of Haley's family story can be found in the written records, but the most likely genealogy would be different from the one described in Roots.
Haley and his work have been excluded from the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, despite his status as the United States' best-selling African-American author. Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the anthology's general editors, has denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works are the reason for this exclusion. In 1998, Dr. Gates acknowledged the doubts surrounding Haley's claims about Roots, saying, 'Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship.'" (all in quotations is from Wikipedia)
Thus, despite Haley's tremendous success and the award of the Pulitzer Prize, I find it to be most unfortunate that Haley's career and life is clouded by plagiarism and disputes regarding his actual genealogical research.

Response by SP5 Mark Kuzinski made Apr 19 at 2016 8:45 PM

2016-04-19T20:45:12-04:00

I think that they need to air it again! "Roots" that is!