According to Daniels’ foreword in The Butler: A Witness to History, a book by Haygood published to accompany the film, the movie “is set against historical events,” but “the title character and his family are fictionalized.” The skeleton of Allen’s story is there: the childhood on a plantation in the early 1920s, the interactions with several presidents. So how much of Allen’s real-life experience actually made it into the film? (Allen’s wife Helene referred affectionately to former First Lady Rosalynn Carter as “country,” for instance.) The Butler is a bit more than 2 hours long, spans several decades, and includes multiple storylines. During his time on campus, he’ll also speak in classes and talk to students and faculty about journalism and writing.But as interesting as Haygood’s profile is, “A Butler Well Served by This Election” doesn’t provide that many details about Allen’s time in the White House outside a handful of facts and humorous anecdotes. Gallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics & Democracy.

He is visiting Notre Dame as this year’s Journalist-in-Residence of the John W. and Sugar Ray Robinson, as well as a memoir, “The Haygoods of Columbus.”Īmong his many awards, Haygood has received an honorary doctorate of letters degree from Miami University (Ohio), his alma mater, and he’s won fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Alicia Patterson Foundation. Haygood is the author of six books, including prize-winning biographies of Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Sammy Davis Jr. In 2005, he was one of the first journalists to arrive in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, and he reported on the aftermath for 33 consecutive days. In 1990, while covering the civil war in Somalia, he was taken hostage by rebels but eventually released. Haygood developed the original article about Eugene Allen, who served on the staff of eight presidents, into a best-selling book, “The Butler: A Witness to History,” which was published in conjunction with the popular 2013 film for which Haygood served as associate producer.īefore joining The Washington Post in 2002, he worked as a national and foreign correspondent at The Boston Globe for 17 years. and take place in the auditorium of the Hesburgh Center for International Studies on Notre Dame Avenue. The conversation, which is open to the public and free of charge, will begin at 7 p.m. 28 (Tuesday) at the University of Notre Dame.

Washington Post national writer Wil Haygood, whose feature story provided the basis for the movie “The Butler,” will discuss his career as a journalist and author Oct.

The Butler by Wil Haygood