Museum of Appalachia Honors Late Author Alex Haley
The Museum of Appalachia celebrated the late author Alex Haley at its Heroes of Southern Appalachia Award ceremony on March 1.
Former Tennessee governor and senator Lamar Alexander presented the award to the Haley family.
“We celebrate Alex Haley because he was God’s storyteller,” Alexander said. “At the peak of his career, when he was perhaps the world’s best-known writer, he sunk his roots into East Tennessee and reminded us to ‘Find the Good and Praise It.’ He had a kind word for everyone. He left us too soon because we loved him so much that we just used him up.”
Haley is best known for his 1976 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The book sold over 15 million copies in seven months, and its television adaptation was watched by a record-breaking 130 million people. Haley’s work is credited with cultivating a widespread interest in genealogy and an appreciation for African American history.
Haley was the first chief journalist in the Coast Guard, and he became a senior editor for Reader’s Digest magazine. He created the impactful profile interview in Playboy magazine, and co-wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X, which has been ranked as one of the 10 most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.
Retired Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice and Museum of Appalachia Board Chairman Gary R. Wade said that Haley is a most worthy recipient of this year’s award. “Mr. Haley contributed so much to the understanding of both African American and Southern Appalachian culture, and went to great lengths to highlight their intersection,” he said. “He found that these cultures are a lot more alike than they are different. It is in the spirit of his motto, ‘Find the Good and Praise It,’ that we honor him with this award.”
At the time of his passing, Haley was writing a book about Southern Appalachia. The novel featured a character based on Steve Parkey, an African American blacksmith from Hancock County whose shop is displayed on the grounds of the Museum of Appalachia.
Through this book, Haley sought to reshape the image of the mountain people that he had come to know. Six months before his death, Haley told Journal: Appalachia that he was “irritated” by the depiction of Appalachia in popular culture. “The truth as I have come to know it is so very different. Here are a people with rich heritage, marvelous lifestyle, atmosphere.”
The celebrated author spent much of his later life in East Tennessee. In 1986, Alexander introduced Haley to John Rice Irwin, founder of the Museum of Appalachia. After a visit to the museum, Haley decided to live nearby in Norris, Tennessee, and bought a farm from Irwin—which is now owned by the Children’s Defense Fund.
Past recipients of the Heroes of Southern Appalachia Award include Dr. Joe Johnson, Jim Hart, Gen. Carl Stiner, and Sen. Howard Baker. The museum’s criteria for choosing recipients includes honoring someone from the Southern Appalachian region who exemplifies the characteristics of perseverance, fortitude, self-reliance and service.
Hosted by television and radio talk show host Hallerin Hilton Hill, the award ceremony was held in Heritage Hall at the Museum of Appalachia, which preserves Southern Appalachian history and culture.