Trivia

While researching his family in Africa, he was driven to an outlying village where his ancestor had come from. A crowd was waiting there, and they chanted in a language Haley didn't understand. When he asked his guide for a translation, the man replied, "They are saying, 'A son of the village has returned.'"

The characters Alex and Haley Dunphy on Modern Family are named after him.

Three men whom he interviewed, Martin Luther King, Black Muslim leader Malcolm X and American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell, were assassinated.

The only person in the history of PLAYBOY magazine to appear both as an interviewer and a celebrity interviewee.

While in the Coast Guard he submitted articles and short stories to various magazines, and posted his rejection slips on the walls of his cabin, and eventually in the galley when he ran out of wall-space in his own quarters.

The most amusing rejection slip he got stated, "Thanks, but this doesn't jell for us."

Had three children two daughters, and one son.

While negotiating with Reader's Digest over their publication of Roots, he was flown out to the company headquarters on their private jet. While sipping the company's scotch and eating their complimentary nuts he thought to himself, "I guess it finally jelled!"

In 1983 he announced his intention to write a book about the true people of the Smoky Mountains, tentatively titled "Sitting in the Appalachians". The book never materialized, however.

He may also be the only modern writer of note to have a warship named after him. The 283-foot Medium Endurance Cutter Alex Haley (WMEC-39) was commissioned on 10 July, 1999, and is homeported in Kodiak, Alaska. Ship's missions include fisheries patrol, search and rescue, law enforcement, environmental protection, and homeland security in the North Pacific.

Several hundred copies of his book "Roots" had to be recalled from the publisher because they had been accidentally bound with covers meant for "Gone With The Wind".

His maternal grandmother Cynthia Palmer was born a slave.

Godfather to Malcom X's daughter Attallah Shabazz

Served in the United States Coast Guard from 1939 to 1959.

Has two brothers, Julius and George.

Graduated from high school at fifteen.

Father Simon Haley was in graduate school at Cornell studying agriculture when he met his future wife Bertha Palmer who was studying music at the Ithaca Conservatory of Music.

In 1936 he enrolled at Alcorn State University. In 1937 he transferred to Elizabeth City State Teachers College in North Carolina. He left two years later without graduating.