Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alex Haley has roots in both East and West Tennessee. He grew up in Henning, a sawmill town along the Mississippi River, but he spent a great deal of his adult life in East Tennessee, giving both regions a claim to his legacy.
Haley’s preeminence—but also his disarming and loving nature—is evident in a larger-than-life statue of the writer at Alex Haley Square in East Knoxville. In the figure, Haley is reading a book, seeming to invite the viewer to gather round and listen to a story. The statue, park, and playground opened in 1998, six years after Haley’s death.