In celebrating the entire history of African Americans and the arts, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is dedicating its 98th Annual Black History Theme to African Americans and the arts in 2024. To bring this special month into even more focus, Wil Haygood, prize-winning journalist, biographer and historian, shares the stories of Black Americans and their seminal roles in the arts. Haygood has covered a great many subjects in this arena, having written about the silent era of Black film to the cascading works of Ava DuVernay and Spike Lee. Among the many artists Haygood has interviewed and written about are Eartha Kitt, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, Angela Bassett, Lola Falana, August Wilson and Louis Gossett Jr. Haygood served as associate producer of the award-winning film The Butler, based on a series of articles and a book he wrote about White House butler Eugene Allen, an African-American man who served eight presidents during a 34-year career inside the White House and lived long enough to see the nation’s first African-American president elected. The Butler featured an all-star cast with Oprah Winfrey, Jane Fonda, Forest Whitaker and Lenny Kravitz among them and was helmed by Oscar-nominated director Lee Daniels. Simply put, Haygood has chronicled and spoken about Black arts in America with a verve and style unmatched by many.

Best-selling author, prize-winning journalist, acclaimed biographer and cultural historian Wil Haygood has told the story of America through the lens of history, politics, sports, race and the lives of change-making African-Americans. Now he is sharing the unprecedented history of Black cinema, and a groundbreaking perspective on racism in modern America. Hear about the struggles and triumphs of the artists and the films themselves, as Wil explores Black culture and the civil rights movement in America.

In the school year of 1968 – 68, America was mourning the heartbreaking assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Cities were aflame, citizens were rioting, and America was divided like never before. Against this racially charged and politically polarized backdrop, an impoverished, all-black high school in Columbus, Ohio showed the nation how to start on the road to healing. Master storyteller Wil Haygood draws from his latest book, Tigerland: 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing to share this remarkable year in the life of East High School. First, they won the state BASKETBALL championship. Then, two months later, they won the state BASEBALL championship. In addition, they fielded a prize-winning debate team and would send more students to college than ever before. The school more than made history. By setting a remarkable example of fortitude and grace through what they had achieved, they helped ease racial tensions in their city. Connecting politics, history, the drama of sports and the powerful personal stories of the athletes, students and their accomplishments, Haygood creates an unforgettable experience. He also makes important connections to the climate of today. Audiences are exalted, inspired and gain invaluable perspective on a year that continues to impact American culture and politics.

When it comes to sports, race, and the quest for freedom, cultural historian Wil Haygood has a scintillating narrative to share—one that brings important context to our current national conversation about the NFL and Colin Kaepernick contretemps. Drawing from his major biographies of two seminal American figures—Thurgood Marshall and Sugar Ray Robinson—Haygood shows the timeless intersection between sports, race, and constitutional rights. Sugar Ray Robinson, the champion prizefighter, fought for the rights of athletes to partake in revenues from athletic team owners. Famed attorney and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued throughout his life that the U.S. Constitution was a bulwark in favor of protest and peaceful dissent. Haygood also previews his newest book, TIGERLAND, which tells the triumphant story of an all-black high school in the 1968-69 school year in Columbus, Ohio, that won, amidst so much national pain, two state championships, basketball and baseball, in the same year. Combining talented storytelling with profiles in social activism, Haygood shares important lessons from history and shines new light on today’s fight for justice.

Wil Haygood's mother was born in the civil rights soaked city of Selma, Alabama. It is little wonder that as Wil was growing up in Ohio, he was always curious about the civil rights era and Martin Luther King—a passion that he later pursued as an award-winning reporter for the Boston Globe and the Washington Post. During his writing career, Haygood has interviewed and written about many of the men and women who worked in MLK's orbit and wrote a great many stories while traveling across the American South. In fact, it was his front page Boston Globe story about the dilapidated conditions that the Lorraine Motel had fallen into that caught the nation's attention and led to a groundswell to have the motel refurbished. In this moving keynote, Haygood examines why Martin Luther King’s quest to make our nation more fair and just still endures, examining issues such as economic equality, voting rights, the criminal justice system, and gender rights.

Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination that Changed America, Wil Haygood’s acclaimed biography of the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, illustrates one of the most bruising battles of a Supreme Court nominee—and the life of one of America’s most transformative legal minds and champions of human rights. These themes are in the news once again given the changing makeup of the current Supreme Court, but the impact of Thurgood Marshall is everlasting. In this moving keynote, Haygood contends that, in an America rife with racial and class tensions, Marshall’s lessons are just as relevant today as they were in the 1940s and 1950s when he transformed civil rights and the history of America. Connecting the legacy of Thurgood Marshall and the impact of the Supreme Court with the headlines of today, Haygood explores enduring issues of justice while celebrating an unforgettable American hero.