Alex Haley wrote “The Autobiography ... providing information for the book’s stirring early chapters about his inner-city childhood and years on the street as a hustler. The men became friends.

Alex Haley wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm ... He slowly opened up, providing information for the stirring early chapters about his urban childhood and years on the street as a hustler.

HENNING, Tenn. (AP) - Fred Montgomery, the childhood friend of "Roots" author Alex Haley and the first black mayor of this rural west Tennessee town, died Wednesday. He was 89. Family members said ...