'Autobiography of Malcolm X' Author Alex Haley Honored With Greenwich Village Plaque

Last week, The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation celebrated the literary and cultural significance of the apartment building at 92 Grove Street, just across from the Stonewall Inn. The building on Grove Street marks the place where writer Alex Haley lived and occupied a writing studio starting in 1963, and the place where he would go on to interview civil rights activist Malcolm X for his first book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. With this history in mind, preservationists unveiled a new plaque on the exterior of the building commemorating the meeting of these two minds.

This plaque, which sits just to the left of the front door, is an important addition to the neighborhood, particularly since even the most dedicated literati may not be aware that over 50 in-person interviews—for a book that would become one of the most significant works of 20th century non-fiction—were conducted just beyond its walls. Even I, Alex Haley’s great-niece (my grandfather was his younger brother), was not aware that Uncle Alex had spent this amount of time crafting the autobiography right here in The Village.

A group of us crowded around the front door at 92 Grove Street one early evening last week, and listened to four guest speakers (all with varying degrees of closeness to Haley, Malcolm X, and their politics), as they recounted memories of the two men and their collaborative, seminal work.

Alex Haley, early 1990s. (Shutterstock)

“What’s undeniable is the power of this story—the way that it did and continues to impact millions of people,” said Brian Jones, Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. “This is really an epic literary event that has its creation moment right here.” The Schomburg Center acquired the entire manuscript of the autobiography and it is held in their archives. “Just last fall we got the typed manuscript where you can see Alex Haley and Malcolm X’s pen marks back and forth over revisions on the text,” said Jones. The papers also include a missing chapter from the book, “The Negro,” which was never before published.

Ilyasa Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, also shared some words. “We’re coming upon my father’s 94th birthday on May 19th and I’m glad to see this recognition that honors his life and work, like the dedication of this historic plaque where he and Alex Haley convened to write this extraordinary book that continues to inspire so many.” The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published shortly after Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, and radically shifted his reputation for Americans. “Alex Haley played an immeasurable role in helping the world to create a more accurate portrait of who my father really was,” Shabazz added.

On behalf of the Haley family, my cousin Andrea Blackstone, niece of Alex Haley, also shared memories of his role as the storyteller in our family, and how his encouragement early on in her career inspired her to write. Though he died just a year before I was born, his legacy and commitment to documenting the lives of African-Americans (most famously in his magnum opus Roots: The Saga of an American Family, published in 1976) has played a huge role in my love of writing too. Uncle Alex won the Pulitzer Prize for Roots in 1977.

This plaque at 92 Grove Street is the fourteenth of GVSHP’s historic plaques which mark the homes of significant cultural figures. Recent plaque locations also include the former dwellings of people like Jean-Michel Basquiat, James Baldwin, Frank O’Hara, Lorraine Hansberry, and even the Martha Graham Dance Studio.

Below, a postcard written by Malcolm X, to Alex Haley at his Grove Street address; it reads: "It is better to live in a shack that you own, at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, than in the city in a mansion that belongs to someone else."