Thurgood Marshall, LeBron James and Wil Haygood: A Writer Committed to his Craft

By Andre Price On a warm Friday evening in early spring, Oxford is buzzing with excitement as the sun finally shines and winter slips away. Students immersed in weekend celebration appear oblivious to the prominent guest rustling past. Engaged in conversation, the tall, lanky man glides across the green, muddy grass of Met quad. As he goes, he talks about Russell Westbrook, the explosive point guard for the Oklahoma Thunder, and the king of hoops, LeBron James, and his latest subject of interest, Thurgood Marshall, the nation’s first black Supreme Court justice. Current‐day Miamians go about their Friday night frolicking unaware that this man, black like many of his heroes and the subjects of his wide body of work, is Wil Haygood, a fellow Miamian quickly becoming as well‐known and well‐ regarded as many of the subjects of his obsessions. Not that he craves the limelight. “I am not a celebrity,” Haygood said during that early March visit to campus. “I am a writer who gets up early in the morning and does his job in a very committed way.” In the eyes of the renowned Washington Post journalist, America has made great strides. However, he strongly believes there is still ground to cover. Society can become more righteous. The ongoing battle to bridge the gap between the rich and poor is becoming more adversarial. Change must start at the federal level, he believes. Despite being born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, Haygood was no stranger to the racism and vehemence of the Deep South. At age 8, he had his first encounter with discrimination and the fears associated with his darker pigmentation. On a family trip to Georgia, his uncle brought along a loaded handgun for the ride, underlining the hostility and hazardous conditions in the southern part of the country. It was the first time Haygood had seen a gun up close. “I was too young to be afraid of the Deep South,” he recalls. “I was just a kid going on summer vacation.” Fifty years on, Haygood is a student of the U.S. civil rights movement, a veteran and seasoned journalist drawn to stories with race at their nucleus. Next spring, he will bring that history and knowledge back to Miami, when he begins a three‐ year stint as a Distinguished Scholar in the Department of Media, Journalism & Film. He’ll teach one semester of each year, serve as a mentor in a new Scholars in Writing for Media Program and advise a documentary film project related to Freedom Summer 1964 and Oxford’s role in that story. “I look forward to sharing experiences of world history and American history through the art form of journalism,” said Haygood when asked about his focus for the coming academic year. “I look forward to teaching students and learning from students.” * * * * * As he sits with his legs crossed in front of an audience of 30 in the Williams Hall TV studio, Haygood prepares for a question‐and‐answer forum with students and faculty. He is wearing a brown, Christmas‐like sweater with a pink button‐up underneath, complemented by a pink tie and loose dark pants. His pink and blue striped dress socks peek from his worn black shoes. The Pulitzer Prize finalist appears to be “cool, calm, and collected” in the sea of commotion around him. After 15 minutes of delay – technical difficulties ‐‐ the forum finally begins. His demeanor can be seen as intimidating, yet reassuring. Haygood offers no facial expressions but shows excitement through his hand gestures. He chooses words deliberately as if filtering information for the most precise response and telling detail. Receives question. Registers question. Processes question. Answers question. The process is innate. Learning to learn started early for Haygood. At a young age he suffered from stuttering. A stern one foot stomp would be the release for many words beginning with p or t. He felt like he embarrassed his mother. In childhood, Haygood was convinced that sports were the ticket to his future. He was cut twice, once in middle school and two years later in the tenth grade, from basketball teams. Nonetheless, Haygood would wake up bright and early, catching two buses for his daily morning commute across Columbus. He made this trek every day to play basketball for a “white” school. Being cut by his local high school team did not deter his pursuit for success. Haygood would later be cut by the junior varsity basketball team at Miami University. During his commencement speech at Miami last May, he told members of the Class of 2013 that after being cut from each team he requested a second chance or shot from the coach. Haygood would eventually end up wearing a jersey on each these three teams. “The truth is that no one can ever really cut away your dream,” he told a packed Yager Stadium. “It is lodged deep inside of you. It is a force of nature. When you lose an opportunity, don’t be afraid to circle back. Ask that person for a second chance. That’s exactly what I did. Knock on the door again. Life is about second chances, but only if you ask. And, know this: When someone gives you a second chance, you give grace to their life. You give them a chance to do something unique, something bigger than themselves, something quite special. They now become part of the long string of human spirit that pulls you along. They constitute that long caravan of people who kept you on that bus.” After all, it was his dream. * * * * * College was a dream, too. Haygood applied to two schools: Otterbein, a small division 3 school just outside of Columbus and Miami in southwestern Ohio. Miami rejected him, he wrote to the director of admissions asking for another chance. He got in. During college, Haygood was not a standout scholar. His first quarter concluded with academic probation. He changed his major to English from Business after failing an economics midterm. Haygood would eventually be advised to change his major again to urban studies, when his counselor cautioned him of the lack of jobs for English majors. Nonetheless, Haygood was able to achieve his goal of playing basketball, even if it was short‐lived, and presented Ms. D’s Fashion Revue to his peers. Haygood proposed the fashion show to the student activities council then promoted the event by hanging up posters around campus. He was able to foster relationships with many students and professors, even his English teacher Marian Musgrave. Armed with a degree, Haygood saved up enough money to move to New York City to pursue a career in acting. He was unsuccessful. A YMCA became his temporary home and a gig at a Macy’s Department store in Queens his job. He worked in the towels and sheets department. Dreams of climbing the corporate ladder were short‐lived. He was fired. His manager requested that he write an essay about his life aspirations. It didn’t save his career but it did open his eyes. “It was my moment of defeat,” said Haygood. Next, he would become a writer. He got a job as a copy editor with a newspaper publisher in Charleston, W. VA. Then came the Boston Globe, where Haygood would spend the next 18 years of his life. A feature writer, magazine writer, national correspondent, a foreign correspondent, and a P. In 1990, he was taken hostage by revolutionaries while covering the civil war in Somalia. With the aid of Pakistani troops, he won a quick release. Haygood would also cover the release of Nelson Mandela, a freedom fighter who had spent his last 27 years behind bars. In 1991, Haygood would become a national writer for the Washington Post Style section. He reported live from New Orleans where he covered Hurricane Katrina for 33 straight days. Most notably, however, would be his groundbreaking story on Eugene Allen, now known to many as ‘The Butler’. The article that started off as a simple story about a butler became a national centerpiece for African American history and progression. It touched the lives of many, black and white—and catapulted Haygood and his work on to the national stage. “He discovered a nuance in history at just the right time,” said Donna James, business advisor and founder of a non‐profit for pregnant teens. Haygood has been the recipient of the National Headliner Award, Sunday Magazine Editors Award, New England Associated Press Award, Paul L. Myhre Single Story Award, Virginia Press Association Award, and the National Association of Black Journalist Award for foreign reporting and feature writing. He was recently awarded the Ella Baker Award in 2013. A close associate, Pastor Gerald Bell calls Haygood a “Renaissance Man.” No foreigner to civil rights himself, Bell helped purchase 6,700 slaves in South Sudan and bring public attention to the slave practice abroad. Working for a Jewish foundation, at the time, Bell is a devout Christian who heads a Christian church in Boston. Bell has been following Haygood’s career since his Boston Globe days. Bell’s favorite Haygood piece is “King of Cats”, which he describes as jaw dropping and immensely eye opening. This book, one Haygood’s first, tells the tale of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and his celebrated yet controversial career as a black polition. “Wil is a Midwestern boy with big city ways,” Bell said. “He can be reclusive at times, old school in his mannerisms and ways. He is extremely loyal, honest, and determined. Wil is a master of the English language.” * * * * * As a chronicler of 20th and 21st century America, Haygood feels it is his duty to convey the stories of African‐Americans pivotal to U.S. history. He states that everyone is an important stitch on the American flag and it is his job to bring meaning to contributions. Eugene Allen was indeed a stitch. “Wil is very witty, compassionate, and insightful, possessing a great sense of history,” said Program Coordinator at Smithsonian Institution, Deidre Cross. Haygood speaks highly of the ‘First Family’. He feels free to publically support Obama and the Obama administration. After all, it was on an Obama campaign plane in Raleigh, N. C. that he came up with the idea of the butler. One night, while covering the campaign, he witnessed two young, white women crying because their fathers had kicked them out for supporting Obama. It was this moment that Haygood says that he knew Obama was going to win the election. He needed a story to parallel the Obama he was sure to come. The Butler—a story that became a screenplay that became a movie and that led to full length book—was the end result of Haygood’s effort to find a black White House employee willing to talk about Obama’s arrival as the first‐ever black president. In Eugene Allen, he found an African‐American butler who had served 8 presidents but never told his story. As the Q and A in Williams Hall slows to conclusion, a question is asked about race relations and Obama. In a very proud and supporting tone, Haygood answers excitedly. This is the most emotion he has shown throughout the entire forum. “I praise Obama for addressing the shootings of unarmed black men,” Haygood said, referring to the 2013 Trayvon Martin and 2014 Florida “loud music” case . “I talked to my nephews about their behavior around police.” This is Haygood’s third trip to Oxford in a year’s time. He will be back early May to hear award winning actor Forest Whitaker, who portrayed Eugene Allen, speak at the 2014 commencement. October, he’ll likely make a fifth appearance with a standing invitation to be a guest at the Freedom Summer conference in October. As noted in his book, The Haygoods of Columbus, Haygood is well versed in the pivotal 1964 summer, particularly Oxford’s involvement. Freedom Summer was, in fact, the theme of a speech he delivered during one his speeches on campus. In the summer of 1964, volunteers departed from weeks of training at Western College for Women and charged south, devoted to alleviating the suffering of African‐Americans plagued by the scourge of racism. America was deeply entrenched in the ideals of segregation, and being just north of Cincinnati, Western College in Oxford, Ohio teetered just above racism’s unofficial border, the Mason‐Dixon Line. Back in Williams, the interviewer receives her cue to wrap up the interview. She had been reading off a prompter while Haygood was simply reciting stored information from his internal encyclopedia. She blanks. The prompter is empty and she cannot remember his name. Haygood, not offended, instead gives her advice and compliments her interviewing skills. He has completed his first lesson at Miami University. The forum concludes and Haygood stays put for a few more minutes to give the interviewer a second take. She remembers his name and he exits the studio for the next stop on his agenda.