LEADER 02509cam 2200205 a 4500
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008 190108s2018 nyuaf g b 000 0beng
010 $a 2017446092
020 $a9781501195600 (pbk.) :$cNT$630
040 $aTWTNM$beng$dTWTNM
082 04$a973.9209$222
100 1 $aHaygood, Wil.
245 14$aThe butler :$ba witness to history /$cWil Haygood.
246 30$aWitness to history.
250 $aFirst 37 Ink/Atria paperback edition.
260 $aNew York :$b37 Ink/Atria,$c2018.
300 $axii, 96 p., [32] p. of plates :$bill. (some color) ;$c19.
500 $a"The story that inspired the motion picture"--Cover.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (page 79).
505 00$tForeword /$rLee Daniels --$tThe butler's journey --$tMoving image --$tFive presidents in the struggle.
520 $aWhen acclaimed Washington Post writer Wil Haygood had an early hunch that Obama would win the 2008 election, he thought he'd highlight the singular moment by exploring the life of someone who had come of age when segregation was so widespread, so embedded in the culture, as to make the very thought of a black president inconceivable. He struck gold when he tracked down Eugene Allen, a butler who had served no fewer than eight presidents, from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan. During his thirty-four years of service, Allen became what the Independent described as a "discreet stagehand who for three decades helped keep the show running in the most important political theatre of all." While serving tea and supervising buffets, Allen was also a witness to history as decisions about America's most momentous events were being made. Here he is at the White House while Kennedy contemplates the Cuban missile crisis: here he is again when Kennedy's widow returns from that fateful day in Dallas. Here he is when Johnson and his cabinet debate Vietnam, and here he is again when Ronald Reagan is finally forced to get tough on apartheid. Perhaps hitting closest to home was the civil rights legislation that was developed, often with passions flaring, right in front of his eyes even as his own community of neighbors, friends, and family were contending with Jim Crow America. With a foreword by the Academy Award-nominated director Lee Daniels, The Butler also includes an essay, in the vein of James Baldwin's jewel The Devil Finds Work, that explores the story of black images on celluloid and in Hollywood, and fifty-seven pictures of Eugene Allen, his family, the presidents he served, and the remarkable cast of the movie.
600 10$aAllen, Eugene,$d1919-2010.
600 10$aObama, Barack.
600 10$aDaniels, Lee,$d1959-.
650 0$aRace relations in motion pictures.
650 0$aAfrican Americans in motion pictures.
650 0$aPresidents$zUnited States$xElection$y2008.
650 0$aPresidents$zUnited States$vStaff$vBiography.
650 0$aButlers$zWashington (D.C.)$vBiography.
650 0$aAfrican American household employees$zWashington (D.C.)$vBiography.
650 0$aAfrican Americans$zWashington (D.C.)$vBiography.
650 0$aAfrican Americans$xSegregation$xHistory$y20th century.
650 1$aRace relations$xHistory.
651 0$aUnited States$xRace relations$xPolitical aspects.