Alex Haley's Proposed Musical

In Alex Haley and the Books That Changed A Nation (St. Martin's Press, 2015), Robert J. Norrell has written that during the time Haley (1921-1992) was preparing The Autobiography of Malcolm X for publication, he "had an idea for a musical about black life, which he called 'The Way.' In 1961," continued Norrell,"Haley had gotten to know Lena Horne, who had starred in Cabin in the Sky, and Haley's musical bore some similarities to that film. Haley's musical would be set in a cosmetics factory run  by a black executive who was surrounded by several stereotyped characters, including a hipster, a white racist, and a black racist. Alternating black and white choruses would sing 'Camptown Races,' with the black group performing spirituals in black dialect. [Paul] Reynolds [Haley's literary agent] called the idea 'very, very interesting.'"

How long before some Broadway producer will learn of Haley's proposed musical and want to put it on the stage? And what will the public and the critics say about it once that happens? Will black audiences see it as an embarrassing minstrel show or a hard-hitting and insightful lampooning of race relations in America? Stay tuned.

Alex Haley Journalism Scholarship Created By Playboy Magazine

Thirty years after Alex Haley conducted an interview with jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, which inaugurated the Playboy magazine interview series, the Chicago-based Playboy Foundation has created the Alex Haley Playboy Interview Scholarship in Magazine Journalism. The scholarship would provide financial assistance to minority students at the University of Tennessee who are either enrolled as full-time undergraduate upperclassmen or master's degree candidates at UT's journalism school.

One student each year will be selected to receive the $5,000 scholarship which will be awarded on the basis of three criteria: academic performance (the students must have a 3.0 grade point average as the minimum, equivalent to a B), professional promise, and financial need. Along with the scholarship is a paid summer internship in Playboy's New York office. However, says Cleo Wilson, the foundation's executive director, the student will be responsible for providing his or her own housing during the internship. Applications for the scholarship must be submitted to the university by January of each year. The recipient will start the internship in June and will be given the scholarship the following September.

Haley was the author of the famed Roots family saga, which later became a classic television miniseries. At the time of his death earlier this year, he was an adjunct professor at the University of Tennessee's Knoxville campus. He is regarded by Christie Hefner, Playboy Enterprises chairwoman and CEO, as "the closest to the soul of the Playboy Interview."

Others interviewed by Haley for the magazine include American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell, Malcolm X, and Quincy Jones.

This article was originally published in the New York Amsterdam News (October 31, 1992).