ABOUT US GET INVOLVED EVENTS ADVOCACY ACCOMPLISHMENTS KID'S ED RESOURCES

NoHo News Join our email list Jefferson Library GVSHP Mission East Village

Home : Preservation : Historic Plaque Program : Latest News : 5/17/19

Site Map/Search

Reset Text Size Smaller Font Larger Font



Plaque Marking Home and Studio
of Alex Haley Unveiled

 
 
On Wednesday, May 15, Village Preservation dedicated our latest historic plaque marking the home and writing studio of Alex Haley at 92 Grove Street, between Waverly & Washington Places. Seephotos and video from the event. 

Alex Haley (1921-1992) lived and maintained a writing studio in Greenwich Village. Beginning in 1963 he conducted fifty in-depth interviews with Malcolm X here for his first book, The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Published shortly after his assassination in 1965, that book transformed the public’s view of Malcolm X, and is widely considered one of the top works of non-fiction. His next project was the 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which has been published in over 30 languages and for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1977. Haley began writing in the Coast Guard, where he served for 20 years. 92 Grove Street is located within the Greenwich Village Historic District; the plaque unveiling is part of our ongoing celebration of the district’s 50th anniversary this year.

Speakers at the plaque unveiling ceremony included:

  • Andrea Blackstone, niece of Alex Haley.

  • Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz.

  • Zaheer Ali, Oral Historian at Brooklyn Historical Society.  

  • Brian Jones, Associate Director of Education at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. 

 

This is Village Preservation’s fourteenth historic plaque.  Prior plaques have marked the homes of Frank O’Hara, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and LeRoi and Hettie Jones, Westbeth, the Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, and the former homes of the Fillmore East and Martha Graham Dance Studio, among many others. Learn more here.

 




Home : Preservation : Historic Plaque Program : Latest News : 5/17/2019

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation : 232 East 11 Street, New York, NY 10003 : 212 475 9585 : info@gvshp.org

© GVSHP

Credits, Copyright, Terms of Service, and Privacy Statements