[1] The novel was subsequently made into the 1973 movie of the same name, directed by Ivan Dixon and co-produced and written by Greenlee,[3] that is now considered a cult classic.
[4] He attended Englewood High School, and in 1948 won a track scholarship to the University of Wisconsin, graduating in 1952 with a BS degree in political science.
[4] In 1957, Greenlee began a career with the United States Information Agency (USIA), and, as one of the first black officials to work overseas,[2] served in Iraq, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Greece between 1957 and 1965.
[4][7] Greenlee drew on his own background and his career in the US Foreign Service,[8] and in a 1973 interview with the Washington Post he said: "My experiences were identical to those of Freeman in the CIA....Everything in that book is an actual quote.
But his sardonic wordplay, Greenlee insisted, had a third layer of meaning: 'that an armed revolution by Black people haunts White America, and has for centuries.
[2] His marriage to Nienke Greenlee ended in divorce, and in 1978, he was also briefly married to actress Yvette Hawkins;[6][20]subsequently, from a long-term relationship with Maxine McCrey, he had a daughter, Natiki.
[24] On June 6, 2014, Chicago's DuSable Museum of African American History sponsored an evening of celebration in his honor, attended by his daughter Natiki Montano.