Research Catalog

Title

The butler : a witness to history / Wil Haygood.

Author

Haygood, Wil

Publication

New York : 37 Ink/Atria, 2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 96 pages, [32] pages of plates : illustrations (some color); 20 cm

Summary

When acclaimed Washington Post writer Wil Haygood had an early hunch that Obama would win the 2008 election, he thought he'd highlight the singular moment by exploring the life of someone who had come of age when segregation was so widespread, so embedded in the culture, as to make the very thought of a black president inconceivable. He struck gold when he tracked down Eugene Allen, a butler who had served no fewer than eight presidents, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan.During his thirty-four years of service, Allen became what the Independent described as a "discreet stagehand who for three decades helped keep the show running in the most important political theatre of all." While serving tea and supervising buffets, Allen was also a witness to history as decisions about America's most momentous events were being made. Here he is at the White House while Kennedy contemplates the Cuban missile crisis: here he is again when Kennedy's widow returns from that fateful day in Dallas. Here he is when Johnson and his cabinet debate Vietnam, and here he is again when Ronald Reagan is finally forced to get tough on apartheid. Perhaps hitting closest to home was the civil rights legislation that was developed, often with passions flaring, right in front of his eyes even as his own community of neighbors, friends, and family were contending with Jim Crow America. With a foreword by the Academy Award-nominated director Lee Daniels, The Butler also includes an essay, in the vein of James Baldwin's jewel The Devil Finds Work, that explores the story of black images on celluloid and in Hollywood, and fifty-seven pictures of Eugene Allen, his family, the presidents he served, and the remarkable cast of the movie.

Uniform Title

Lee Daniels' the butler (Motion picture)

Alternative Title

• Witness to history.
• Witness to history

Subject

• Allen, Eugene, 1919-2010
• Obama, Barack
• Daniels, Lee, 1959-
• 1900-2008
• Presidents > United States > Staff > Biography
• Butlers > United States > Biography
• African American household employees > Biography
• African Americans > Biography
• African Americans > History > 20th century
• Race relations in motion pictures
• African Americans in motion pictures
• Presidents > United States > Election > 2008
• Butler
• Butlers > Washington (D.C.) > Biography
• African American household employees > Washington (D.C.) > Biography
• African Americans > Washington (D.C.) > Biography
• Black or African American > United States > Biography
• United States > Political aspects
• USA
• United States

Genre/Form

• People.
• Biography

Note

• "The story that inspired the motion picture"--Dust jacket.
• Includes an essay on the history of the portrayal of African Americans in motion pictures.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (page 79).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Foreword / Lee Daniels -- The butler's journey -- Moving image -- Five presidents in the struggle.

ISBN

• 9781476752990
• 1476752990

OCLC

• 853758519
• SCSB-11947106

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library