Wil Haygood

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  • Patrick Henry Fellow, 2017 - 2018

Headshot of Wil Haygood

Wil Haygood

 

    Wil Haygood is a cultural historian and an award-winning author of seven nonfiction books. His latest book, Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America, was awarded the 2016 Scribe Book Award from the American Society of Legal Writers. the Ohioana Book Award, the Honor Book Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Haygood’s 2008 Washington Post story about White House butler Eugene Allen, who served under eight presidents, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, won multiple journalism awards and was adapted into the prizewinning major motion picture The Butler directed by Lee Daniels.

    While in residence at Washington College, Haygood wrote the critically-acclaimed Tigerland, 1968-1969: A City Divided, A Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing. The Miracle on East Broad Street. The book tells the epic story of America in 1968-69 through the prism of a segregated all-black high school in Columbus, Ohio. Fighting for equality and freedom, two athletic teams at the school achieved moments of grandness by winning state championships amidst the turmoil following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..

    While at Washington College, Haygood taught an upper-level seminar on memoir writing.

     

    For more about Haygood at Washington College, click here.

    For reviews of Tigerland, 1968-1969, click here.

    See photos of the trip Haygood led to “The Butler’s” house.