Wil Haygood Audio & Video

Eugene Allen worked as the White House butler for thirty-four years, serving eight presidents. Wil Haygood, author of acclaimed biographies of Sugar Ray Robinson, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Adam Clayton Powell, published a front-page feature on Allen in The Washington Post.

This unprecedented history of Black cinema examines 100 years of Black movies - from Gone with the Wind to Blaxploitation films to Black Panther - using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture, civil rights, and racism in America.

When acclaimed Washington Post writer Wil Haygood had an early hunch that Obama would win the 2008 election, he thought he'd highlight the singular moment by exploring the life of someone who had come of age when segregation was so embedded in the culture as to make the very thought of a black president inconceivable.

Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets.

Wil Haygood talked about his life and career and responded to viewer comments and questions. Mr. Haygood's most recent book is Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America.

Against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history...

This biography of entertainment legend Sammy Davis, Jr. is an enthralling portrait of one of the most recognizable figures from the golden age of American show business....