Wil Haygood is the author of Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World, an unprecedented history of Black cinema examines 100 years of Black movies—from Gone with the Wind to Blaxploitation films to Black Panther—using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture, civil rights, and racism in America.

Haygood also authored Tigerland, which focuses on the 1968-1969 seasons of segregated East High School’s baseball and basketball teams.

Haygood is a Visiting Distinguished Professor in the department of media, journalism, and film at Miami University, Ohio. Previously, he spent nearly three decades as a journalist with The Boston Globe (where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist) and The Washington Post.

While at the Post, Haygood wrote an article entitled “A Butler WellServed By This Election”, about White House butler Eugene Allen,which served as the inspiration for the 2013 movie The Butler. Haygood eventually went on to write a book about Allen, The Butler: A Witness to History. In addition to The Butler and Tigerland, He has authored six other books.

Haygood is a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Alicia Patterson Foundation.

Born in Columbus and now residing in Washington, D.C., Haygood is a graduate of Miami University.