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Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
It may have struck many people as odd that Lamar Alexander, the senior senator from Tennessee, gave a shout-out to Alex Haley, the author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, during his remarks at the presidential inauguration.
“The late Alex Haley, the author of Roots, lived his life by these six words: Find the good and praise it,” Alexander said Monday on the National Mall, just before he introduced Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who swore in Vice President Biden. (Alexander was the only Republican lawmaker to speak at President Obama’s inauguration.)
But it turns out that Alexander and Haley, who died in 1992, were old friends from way back, according to The Washington Post.
In 2011, Alexander donated many of his papers, including his long correspondence with Haley, to Vanderbilt University.
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2013