Indeed, the book and the subsequent television miniseries marked a watershed for the nation. “Few works in the post- World War II era can match the searing impact Roots had on a racially troubled land, ” assessed Mark Goodman in People. Such critics as Essence magazine correspondent Betty Winston Baye hailed the author as “a national treasure importance to the world. It also did more to foster interest in black history and genealogy than any novel before or since. An international bestseller published in more than 30 languages with six million copies sold, Roots made its author a millionaire celebrity. Haley ’s account of his ancestor Kunta Kinte, who was captured by slave traders in 1767 and brought to America against his will, won a special Pulitzer Prize and a citation from the National Book Award committee. To fully appreciate the contribution he made to medium, the African-American community and the country, his work must be examined within a context of changing demographics, historical events at home and abroad and, most important, the centuries-long struggle of a people to be recognized as full-fledged members of the national community.The late Alex Haley gave America a bicentennial gift that will not soon be forgotten -his fact-based book Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

The importance of Alex Haley and the impact of his work on television history should not be underestimated. Although criticized by some for taking too many liberties in the telling of his journey into his ancestral past, Haley maintained that 'Roots is intended to convey a symbolic history of a people.' Haley described Roots as 'faction,' a combination of fact and fiction. Roots, Haley's next bestseller, was a fictionalized version of his own search for his ancestral past, which led him to the African village of Juffure, in Gambia. The result of that collaboration, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, was published in 1965 and sold six million copies. Later Haley was asked by Malcom X to write his life's story. During this time he met Malcolm X, then one of the followers of Elija Mohamad, leader of the Nation of Islam. Haley began his writing career through assignments from Reader's Digest and Playboy magazine, where he conducted interviews. The novel was published in 1976, when the United States was celebrating it's bicentennial. The novels, loosely based on Haley's own family, presented an interpretation of the journey of African Americans from their homeland to the United States and their subsequent search for freedom and dignity. Alex Haley, an African American writer, is best known for as the author of the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family, from which two television miniseries, Roots and Roots II, were adapted.

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