Digging Up the Roots of "Roots" (Alex Haley)

[@AngusRockford]

It's pretty rare that a writer comes along and forever changes the way millions of people understand their own past and the past of a nation. As time goes on, Haley will be even more revered among American writers than he already is.

[@l.thomas1762]

This man was before his time.

[@denisemilfort4581]

He wrote my favorite book The Autobiography of Malcolm X:)

[@shopobjetdart]

He has established himself as an untrustworthy source of factual and original information.

[@l.thomas1762]

You white people can't stand for a Black person to be a genius. We aren't listening to your shitty references to be hones.

[@mr.younger5813]

He didn’t write either....

[@AdamsBrew78]

@@shopobjetdart You’ve established yourself as an unestablished blowhard.

[@keenanboyd5972]

@@l.thomas1762 This nigga is apart of the boule everything he did was to benefit white people lol

[@babyboybyrd1982]

I have a new found Love for Alex Haley. Awesome Great man.

[@randallanthony1794]

this guy copied his entire book from another.hes a complete fraud

[@RonZanderful]

randall anthony No one cares that he plagiarized Roots and had to pay a lot of the money back. It’s all about the narrative.

[@keenanboyd5972]

@@RonZanderful Yeah fake ass out of Africa story that have not been proven to this very day

[@keenanboyd5972]

@@randallanthony1794 W

[@randallanthony1794]

Zandron Barlow really,as long as its a good story then truth doesn’t matter.ah the history of Hollywood

[@weeannie495]

Roots was so heartbreaking and difficult to watch. I tried to watch it recently as I had been captivated years ago. When my dad told me that behaviour was a reality. I was shocked to my core. I was unable to watch it a second time.

[@johndavies5582]

Good thing u know if plagiarized

[@LysssaJo97]

Watched all of roots..hated every single white person in the series besides ol' George(im white btw) he was alright I guess. Show made me so sad to watch.

[@Wabalabano]

@@johndavies5582 Partly! His ancestry is real. Kizzie was a real person, Chicken George really existed, Queen Jackson really existed and they were Haley's ancestors, they really were slaves. Stop being such bastards and sue Santa Claus instead!

[@luvlywun00]

this is a great interview and the latest in life I've ever seen Haley interview. I enjoyed watching the author's perspective of the unfolding of the book to the world. I am looking for my own family now because of watching "Roots" and "Queen" growing up.

[@angelabluebird609]

Alex Haley is a National Treasure, whose gifts are national treasures to all of us.

[@randallanthony1794]

alex haley is a liar and fraud.roots was a novel written by a white man.this is a complete fraud.

[@RonZanderful]

randall anthony Yeah. I just found that out myself.

[@popeye12money]

@@randallanthony1794 your statement is fraud. Only certain details were taken. His ancestors were real and the transatlantic slave trade was real. Roots is bigger than Alex Haley, it's a representation of African Americans history. Every African American in the United States has a Kunta Kinte ancestor.

[@randallanthony1794]

@@popeye12money i rember watching it as a kid good tv show but alex haleys history it iisnt.quit saying things are true just because it sounds true and is a good story.its fiction

[@hassanabdur-rahman1559]

@@randallanthony1794 the kidnapping and enslaving of African people is not fiction. You try to dismiss Haley's book in order to try to ease your conscience of the reality of the greatest crime against humanity. The enslavement and dehumanization of African people brought to the United States is a reality. You are a moral fraud.

[@erickanew]

Wow this is a year before he died, his voice sounds like my father

[@darlenebattle2713]

It was a high honor to see this "lost" interview. Thank you so much for posting!

[@warnerokereke4259]

The man, the myth, ...the legend! Alex Haley, was like a beacon of light and national treasure for us all

[@Simon-pl2zi]

what? no...Haley was successfully sued in court for stealing the storyline from Harold Courlander. Haley also falsified the historical record of how the black slave trade began. During the 1700s, it was the African tribes who were capturing and enslaving blacks, and then selling by the millions to the Europeans. This minor detail Haley deliberately left out of the Roots story.

[@se886]

Thank you for this treasure.

[@Thick_Cut_Bacon]

Amazing interview I stumbled upon. Thank you so much

[@paulinerolle6548]

+Pauline Rolle ,Alex Haley is a very educated man .September 6,2017.

[@nitefox4411]

A white southern Baptist little child watched "Behold The Only Thing Greater Than Yourself" and going on 50 years later it still matters. If it was aired today, there are too many other distractions to matter as much...but the theme IS universal. Differences, black vs white, Christian vs Muslim, gay vs straight... We are human beings on this earth and we better learn how to get along for future generations. It is very easy to treat human beings like the enemy when they are just people.

[@lwilliams7570]

To those that say this story is false. If you are African American, go do your ancestry research and I bet it will sound just like his story because if your ancestors was slaves, it was pretty much similar, in which it can sound the same as any other AA in the US. Wake up people!!!

[@negloblaxon7616]

Shut up. Your White Supremacist "All so-called African Americans are the SAME" NARRATIVE is pathetic. Alex Hailey Lied.

[@keenanboyd5972]

@@negloblaxon7616 Exactly

@@negloblaxon7616 stfu

[@Simon-pl2zi]

Yes slavery happened in America and it was terrible, but here are four main reasons why Roots was a false story: 1. It was proven that Kunta Kinte was not an ancestor of Haley, as he falsely claimed, because there is zero evidence that Kinte ever existed. 2. Haley plagiarized 81 passages verbatim from a book called The African, and copied that into Roots. Also, ghost writer Murray Fisher wrote almost all of Roots. 3. Black slavery was not solely a white man's crime, as Haley wanted his readers to believe. By the 1800's nearly 4000 black slaveholders bought African slaves to work on their own plantations. 4. White men did not enter Africa to steal slaves, as Haley claims in his book. Historical facts prove that the dominant African tribes captured and transported black slaves to the trade ports along the African coastline and sold them to Europeans in exchange for cloth, metal and guns.

[@AlongtheFarClimbDown843]

ROOTS-In 1978 Alex Haley agreed to pay Harold Courlander {the author of 1967's "The African"} $650,000 in an out-of-court settlement for plagiarism. Harold “Hal” Courlander deserves to have his name above that of Haley's as the author of "Roots."

[@popeye12money]

He only plagiarized certain details. His family ancestors were not plagiarized.

[@jackwhitfield4520]

@@popeye12money yea they were one African out of millions Africans remember his roots? Hard to believe

[@deeannaruss923]

So glad that you mention this. There are people now that actually think that the events in “ROOTS” were 100% “true.”

[@taysliick]

He went to court and admitted he didn't read the book but he did use ideas from a fish bowl, that's why they were paid. do your research b4 defaming a legacy on a public platform

[@Arguewityamama]

@@popeye12money the movie nor the book were about his family or ancestors, the book in its entirety was fiction, plagiarized from TWO other books

[@sharonwentlandt6281]

After watching Roots for the first time back then, I spent my time looking for my family and my cousin was interested in doing the same. She has found more family members than I have. But she shares her information with me.

[@Kelvinllovejr]

Great stuff.

[@indiansage9295]

This beautifully designed and done.fvck the haters Alex is a genius

[@randallanthony1794]

no hes a fraud

[@Simon-pl2zi]

Knowing the fact that Haley was a fraud is hard to swallow, but its the truth. Black intellectuals such as Crouch and Sowell have also called Haley out for this blatant lies.

[@GraciaBelievesthatJesusSaves]

Its after i saw the Movie actualy at the end was introduced to this Author writer Alex Hayley ...i never knew about his writting ,but the way he wrote the story roots and as it came on the screen helped me to remind me again that Bible prophecy is real ,that slavery was and still is real unfortunately maybe in a different forms but maybe the same that we dont know off in some places in this world ,therefore the Hunger more for The Gospel of Salvation and the realisation

[@AldaMrkreNielsdottir]

The host reminds me of Ellen DeGeneres. Sad to think that this was filmed only the year prior to his death.

[@joebloggs5318]

Sad to think such an otherwise hot woman butchered her hair in the name of lesbianism.

[@alexbernero4239]

I got Alex Haley for my project so I'll be studying About you!!!

[@vanessa2ize]

ok, anybody know what that theme song is? i used to hear that years ago on local television in plattsburgh, new york and burlington, vermont

[@thomtorrez7618]

His story Roots plagiarized other authors and he admittedly referred to it as myth . But when legend contridics truth its easier to go with legend .

[@ellisisland1374]

Roots is both fact and fiction.

[@GoWandererGo]

Beautiful man. RIP.

[@BIGNELLTV]

BRILLIANT INTERVIEW. BILLY D BIGNELL 28/04/2015

[@islamicchronicles5381]

THANK YOU

[@Belitmedia]

Omg… @24:00 ‘The Basset’ story with James Baldwin ..I wander what writer will I be friends with…who will I visit? To be in the circle of writers…please contact me…

[@killua99944]

Haley died one year after this

[@Gen-yh1jz]

Is it true that Roots was plagiarism? I read something that it was.

[@ellisisland1374]

Since Roots aired 40 years ago, Mr. Alex Haley has been considered controversial. Also, critics and opportunists have tried to undercut his legacy. Yes. He was sued. However, Mr. Haley never claimed every aspect of his book was true. He stated that Roots was based on his family's oral history. So, some parts of his story are unverifiable and dramatized. However, there are KZbin videos that show pictures of his extended family existed along with where some of them worked and lived.

[@ernestined.lawrence9514]

Talking to every Maga nationalist worldwide! “we” being rooted, grounded and invested as the only African American coalition that built the black communities you now share as your own, need “you” who are diverse in your opinion, to understand that we did not come this far, did all of this struggling, accomplished all of our wealth so that you could prosper and we can just journal your progress! You got this entire thing twisted out of shape! “We are not a diverse “ group like the LGBT, or like those who migrated to escape dictators, we are authentic real settlers who live and thrive as human beings with wealth, health and progress for our own good here in the authentic historical black America! You have tried to bury us in diversity, but we thrive in authentic afronicity from our roots to our boots! Let’s go, and any politician, be it black or otherwise, that makes the disasterous mistake of assuming we are not real and our goal is no met, that is to his own peril! Get up, all rise!

[@kinteh-2]

He is my Brother.

[@jc6594]

Today Commemorates Alex Haley's 100th Birthday

[@grrriallen7192]

Madam,with all due respect - it is “Roots” not “Ruts”. Roots - rhymes with boots!!

[@SixShooterGooner]

Fraud

[@greedyd5524]

Plagiarism. He stole the book

[@tatriceshipp9139]

Greedy D no he didn't

[@tufftony3862]

wake up...yes he did...

[@lwilliams7570]

Greedy D HATER!!! Write about your bootleg ass family history and let’s see if you make money or anything from it!!!

[@traceyf4842]

He didn't steal the book. Alex wrote his on truth. He paid the man that said he used part of his book. I still believe his story.

[@traceyf4842]

@Van Brown that's cool.

[@rotten_eggz]

O_O

[@wildflower815]

He was sued by two writers because he stole their work. Roots was plagiarized. Not a very good person.

[@ellisisland1374]

Anyone can file a lawsuit. It doesn't invalidate his work. Roots is both fact and fiction. The author, Mr Alex Haley stated that Roots was based on his family's oral history. He never claimed every aspect of his book was true. He acknowledged that other sources was studied. Therefore, some parts of his story are unverifiable and dramatized. However, there are KZbin videos that show pictures of his ancestors and where they lived and worked.

[@IAM_GodKing]

Some How They Got On The Ships😄