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By the early 1960s, Alex Haley had interviewed such prominent figures as Miles Davis and Martin Luther King Jr. for Playboy magazine; in 1965, he collaborated with Malcolm X in writing The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the acclaimed memoir of the civil rights activist. But it was Haley’s 1976 work about his ancestors, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, that made him a household name.
This charcoal portrait by artist/author Barnaby Conrad Jr. depicts a thoughtful Haley two years before the publication of his Pulitzer Prize–winning book. Conrad became acquainted with Haley while teaching creative writing, later introducing him to the agent who would eventually publish Roots. In 1977 the television miniseries based on the book captivated a record-breaking 130 million viewers. Although the book has since been acknowledged for weak historical scholarship, its significance is irrefutable, marking a sea change in the national understanding of African American history and genealogy.
