Alex Haley statue Roots

Knoxville, Tennessee, United States

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Listed, not yet checked · Oct 2026

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A 13-foot bronze statue of author Alex Haley, by sculptor Tina Allen, stands in Haley Heritage Square on the slopes of Morningside Park in East Knoxville, Tennessee. Haley is shown seated and reading, with a copy of Roots in one hand.

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Alex Haley statue Roots

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Approximate location · 35.976° N, 83.903° W

FIELD GUIDE

The story

A 13-foot bronze figure of the author Alex Haley sits on a hillside above Morningside Park in East Knoxville, a book in one hand and the other held out as if he is telling a story.

Sculptor Tina Allen made the work for Haley Heritage Square. The Alex Haley website describes Haley in casual clothes, seated beside a stream, reading and gazing toward the Smoky Mountains, with a copy of Roots in his left hand. The City of Knoxville says the statue was cast in bronze in New York City and weighs 6,500 pounds, and describes it as the second tallest statue of an African American in the United States, behind the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. A 2015 Knoxville Focus article gave the height as 12 feet.

The date is given differently by different sources. The Alex Haley website says construction began in autumn 1994 and that the square was unveiled during the state Bicentennial in June 1996. One City of Knoxville page also gives June 1996; another city page says the statue was dedicated on 24 April 1998 before a crowd of more than 1,000 people.

Haley (1921 to 1992) wrote Roots: The Saga of an American Family, which the city describes as a 1976 novel and which was released as a television mini-series in 1977. The Alex Haley website says he spent the last fourteen years of his life in East Tennessee; the city says he lived his final years nearby in Clinton, Tennessee.

The statue stands in a city park with play structures, a water fountain and green space. According to the city, crosswalks nearby lead across the street to the Beck Cultural Center, a non-profit museum of African American history, so the two can be seen together.

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A seated bronze statue in a city park that also has play structures, a water fountain and green space. According to the City of Knoxville, crosswalks nearby lead to the Beck Cultural Center, a non-profit museum of African American history.

ACCESS

In Haley Heritage Square, a City of Knoxville park on the slopes of Morningside Park, East Knoxville. The city lists 1871 Hazen Street; other sources give 1600 Dandridge Avenue. City park rules say parks are open dawn to dusk unless posted.

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