St. Louis Public Library

ST. LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS BLACK HISTORY MONTH KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY AUTHOR WIL HAYGOOD

 

The St. Louis Public Library is proud to highlight its celebration of Black History Month 2014 with a keynote address by Wil Haygood, author of The Butler: A Witness to History.  The event takes place at Central Library, 1301 Olive Street, on Sunday, February 9 at 2 p.m.

In conjunction with Haygood's appearance, the Library will also present a special screening of the movie inspired by Haygood's book in Central Library's Auditorium on Thursday, February 6 at 6:30 p.m.  Both programs are FREE and open to the public. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.  Books available for purchase courtesy of Amber Books.

When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, acclaimed Washington Post reporter Wil Haygood wanted to write an article about an African American who had worked in the White House as a servant; someone who had come of age when segregation was so widespread, so embedded in the culture, as to make the very thought of a black president inconceivable.

He struck gold in finding Eugene Allen, a butler who had served no less than eight presidents—from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan. The result was The Butler: A Witness to History, a portrait of Allen's lifelong journey from his birth in 1919 on a southern plantation to his years of service at the White House. Haygood's book went on to become the inspiration for the critically and popularly acclaimed motion picture, The Butler.

Haygood's journalism career has been equally notable. For 17 years he was a national and foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. In 1990, while covering the civil war in Somalia, he was taken hostage by rebels and eventually released with the aid of Pakistani troops. On another assignment, he found himself outside the South African prison when Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years of imprisonment.

In 2002, Haygood joined The Washington Post as a national writer. He was one of the first journalists into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a story that he covered for 33 straight days.

For more information, call 314-539-0315.

St. Louis Public Library

City of St. Louis