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Kunta Kinte Biography

Slave / Literary Hero

Kunta Kinte is the central figure in Alex Haley's 1976 book Roots. According to Haley's research, Kinte was 17 when he was captured and taken to America as a slave aboard the ship Lord Ligonier in 1767. Roots traces the lives of Kinte and his descendants down to Haley himself, Kinte's great great great great-grandson. The book became a popular TV miniseries in 1977, starring LeVar Burton as young Kinte and John Amos as the older Kinte.

Extra credit: A memorial to Haley and Kinte stands in Annapolis, Maryland, at the dock where Kinte arrived.

For more information on real-life influential African-Americans, including Jesse Jackson, Charles Drew and Crispus Attucks, see our Who2 loop on Black History.