BRIDGEWATER, Va. – Wil Haygood is an alumnus from Miami University in Ohio who majored in Urban Studies. While he graduated with a 2.2 GPA, he is an accomplished and successful man who has published many books, films and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1991.
Haygood is an American journalist, author and civil rights activist who is known for his storytelling and notable film, “The Butler.” Made in 2013, “The Butler” starred multiple Oscar award winners and was directed by Oprah Winfrey and Haygood.
The movie was about a Black butler named Eugene Allen, who worked for eight different presidents, from Truman to Reagan. Forest Whitaker played as the butler, and it was written after the first black president, Barack Obama, was elected.
Fun fact, the granddaughter of original Butler, Eugene Allen, attended Bridgewater College in the 1990s.
On Tuesday, Jan. 21 students, faculty and locals in the town of Bridgewater were fortunate enough to be able to attend his lecture in Cole Hall to listen to his stories about civil rights and how it shapes into the issues we face today.
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Haygood shared stories about his own experiences as a journalist when he was in Somalia as a foreign correspondent for “The Washington Post.”
In one of his stories, Haygood reflected on his visit to Somalia, Africa, where he was held hostage, by a boy and his father while covering the Somalian war for “The Washington Post.”
They took Haygood and they showed him books that they were hiding under a tarp. Books are banned in Somalia so Haygood encouraged the audience to take a stance against book bands.
“It was really interesting, I learned things that I actually didn’t know that happened… and it was really impacting,” sophomore biology major Jimena García said.
(Kirsten Pittman)
Also mentioned in one of his stories, he spoke on how he has covered four Civil Wars, wrote about the liberation of Nelson Mandela and the challenges he faced after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
He described that after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., he and his playmates had tanks pointed at them because they lived in a housing project.
“They definitely were meaningful. As a history major, I definitely thought they were powerful and needed to be shared more,” junior psychology major Grace Wright said when asked if she was impacted by the stories.
Haygood said while dealing with such high tensions, sports brought people together.
Growing up, athletes older than him walked around his neighborhood and he looked up to them as “gods.”
Haygood mentioned that these athletes came from a “poor, black high school,” but despite that, they won a state baseball and basketball championship, both in the same year.
“I thought it was interesting, it was definitely not what I was expecting when I walked in here to listen to it,” Wright said on Haygood’s lecture.
