Wil Haygood , "Tigerland"

Wil Haygood discusses his book, "Tigerland", at Politics and Prose on 10/15/18.

Picture America in the late 1960s and the scene is one of nearly unmitigated political and social turmoil. Yet amid the assassinations, protests, and anger, the nation also harbored pockets of courage and resilience. In his new book, Haygood, author of Showdown, The Butler, and biographies of Sugar Ray Robinson and Sammy Davis Jr., tells the story of a poor, segregated high school in Columbus, Ohio, that in the 1968-’69 academic year fielded championship teams in both basketball and baseball. Defeating richer, bigger, and whiter teams across the state, the Tigers became not only hometown heroes, but inspiration for the rising generation of young African Americans. In this deeply compelling work, Haygood profiles a number of the athletes and shows how they overcame myriad social and personal challenges. He also introduces coaches, principals, and local fans, and puts the Tigers’ achievements in the wider national context.

WIL HAYGOOD is currently a Visiting Distinguished Professor in the department of media, journalism, and film at Miami University, Ohio. For nearly three decades he was a journalist, serving as a national and foreign correspondent at The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and then at The Washington Post. He is the author The Butler: A Witness to History; Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America; Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson; In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr; Two on the River; King of the Cats: The Life and Times of Adam Clayton Powell Jr.; and The Haygoods of Columbus: A Family Memoir. The Butler was later adapted into the critically acclaimed film directed by Lee Daniels, starring Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. He has received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, and the 2017 Patrick Henry Fellowship Literary Award for his research on Tigerland. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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Produced by Tom Warren