Miami University announced yesterday that author, reporter and alumnus Wil Haygood will speak at the May 2013 commencement ceremony. According to Carole Johnson, assistant director of university news and communication, Haygood has been a journalist for the Washington Post since 2002.
He is the author of five books, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and has earned a National Headliner Award, Sunday Magazine Editors Award and National Association of Black Journalists Award, among other awards and distinctions for feature writing and national and foreign reporting.
For the Washington Post, Haygood covered Hurricane Katrina and reported on Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. His 2008 front-page story about White House butler Eugene Allen is the inspiration for the film "The Butler," directed by Lee Daniels due to be released next fall. The film stars Oprah Winfrey, Forest Whitaker, Jane Fonda, Cuba Gooding Jr. Vanessa Redgrave and Robin Williams. Haygood is an associate producer of the movie.
Currently, Haygood is writing a book about Thurgood Marshall, former Supreme Court Justice and Brown v. Board of Education lawyer.
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.