Ithaca Blog

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Alex Haley, Ithaca's Chronicler of Dr. Martin Luther King

Ithacans can take local pride on Martin Luther King Day in the contribution by Alex Haley, the late author and native of Ithaca, to the historical literature on Dr. King .

Mr. Haley conducted the longest interview ever given by Dr. King. The interview was published by Playboy magazine in January 1965.

The piece serves as a contemporaneous account by Dr. King of his work, not as an historic enterprise which would inevitably recast society, but as a daily struggle with tactics, alliances, and inspiration, without sureness of success or even safety.

The interview can be read online in a setting unbefitting of its status, shall we say, in the archives of the website of Playboy magazine. It is also available in printed anthologies of Alex Haley's work.

Stephen Burke
for Ithaca Blog

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