Alex Haley touched the American psyche in 1976 with Roots, the story of Kunta Kinte, an African boy sold into bondage and transported to North America. Inspiration for the character, Haley claimed, came from his Gambian ancestor.
Haley’s novel flew off the press into the warm arms of acclaim. The book soared on the New York Times bestseller list, on which it sat for 46 weeks (with 22 weeks at the top spot). Its words were lifted from the pages and brought to life in a 1977 miniseries by the same name. Nominated for 37 Primetime Emmy Awards, it scored nine plus a Golden Globe and a Peabody. Haley took home a Pulitzer Prize, too.
Haley’s story tore open an emotional scab, fundamentally changing the way Americans talk, think, and portray race relations in this country. The Roots narrative of a singularly evil white race, and cruel slavery as an uniquely white institution, lives with us today.
A year after Haley’s death in 1992, the Village Voice published an explosive exposé: “Alex Haley’s Hoax: How the Celebrated Author Faked the Pulitzer Prize-winning ‘Roots.’”
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