it's an interesting finding because those who study politics, we're not going to learn anything. we do because you miss some things some sometimes you know one candidate's position but never heard the other. get the contrasted point of view. so there's extraordinarily valuable. wish we could find more venues like that which we come together and give people as much unmediate time to communicate with us unfiltered so we can make our own judgments. i'm now out of time. i appreciate the opportunity to talk to you. i thank you those watching once c-span and those head ought into the cold winter night, thank you for joining me. [applause] >> thank you, everyone, for joining us. there's time to mingle and purchase books from the ivy book shop. you can also get your book signed bocage lean and if you

have -- by kathleen and if you have questions, we're here until 8:00. >> book of the recently visited the national press club's annual book fair in washington, dc. and spoke with author wil haygood but columbus, ohio. >> what is tigerland? >> guest: it is a book about columbus, ohio, east high school, 1968, it's school year starts that fall, everybody inside the high school is very hurt, full of pain because martin luther king jr. has been assassinated, robert f. kennedy has been assassinated, the school has its first black principal, the segregated school, and they want to do something special the school program tells them, everybody is watching us, so we can't show anger, we can't walk out like some other high schools are doing, so first, they win the

state basketball championship, and then 55 days later, all black school, wins the state baseball championship. first time in the history of the state that the same school wins two championships in one year. the fact that they won it, against the backdrop of martin luther king's assassination, vietnam war protests, and other school walkouts, gives that an astonishing glory angle. >> host: how much of that was due to the principal? >> guest: jack gibbs, an amazing man, he was a walk-on football player at ohio state university, and he was feared, ferocious about pride, he cared about the students. they also at the end of the year

sent more kids to college -- more kid went to college from this all-black hoolahan in any eye previous year, and it just became a national story of high achievement because of all that astonishing thing that happened. eight of the 12 basketball players' mothers were maids they've work as maids, eight out of the 12. two of the baseball players had fathers who were serving time. in prison. and so for the most part these were fatherless 16 and 17-year-old young black boys, who did something amazing in that year that was full of pain. >> host: did the columbus dispatch report on this center. >> guest: yes. they did. but -- and it was the only time

that the dispatch had as many black folk on the cover of the newspaper. i mean, they really had a sense that this was a big story, even though it wasn't a paper that covered the civil rights movement extensively but this was story they could not ignore, and they gave it play. it was a local black newspaper who had a gentleman named high rum canner who had played baseball in the negro league, who kind of knew that the baseball team was special, and so he wanted people to pay attention, but nobody came to the baseball games and the baseball players who i tracked down from that year, told me that they were looking in the

stands and sometimes there would be one or two people in the stands. both teams had coaches who were white, bob hart for basketball, and paul pinell, baseball. bob hart land at norman day in world war ii, was a progressive, had a wonderful big heart, his last name is hart also, but he knew that this was where we wanted to be. he went to ohio wesleyan university, right outside of columbus, and he wrote this senior thesis on the unfair treatment of the negro soldier in world war 2. that was in 1946. and then 23 years later, he is on the sidelines leading this all-black high school to the state championship.

>> host: why did you wait 50 years write this story? >> guest: i was born in columbus, but left to work on other newspapers, and it wasn't in my consciousness that the high school had won two state championships, and i was home about five years ago, after finishing my thurgood marshallback, and i ran into garnett differs who was on the baseball team that year, and we were walk us down the street and talking but east high and this similar year of 1968-1969, and that they won this wonderful basketball championship, and he shade to me, he said, but, wil issue was on the baseball team, we won the state championship that year, too. and i said, no way.

and he said, no, we lost five games in the middle of the season. he wad a five-game losing streak but we stormed back, made into it the state tournament, and won eight straight games, and i said, are you serious? he said, i'm absolutely serious. we won the state baseball championship. so i ran to the library the next morning, and looked it up, just to make absolutely sure, and there it was, columbus wins second state championship in two month period, and i said, to myself, i said, now, that's a book. that's exactly what i said to myself. and i set about finding all the athletes and finding teachers and students and just threading the story together. it's two narratives. you think of these movies, like

blindside, friday night lights and hoosiers and remember the titans. those are about one sport and one school. this is about two sports and they actually made it to the top of the mountain, and i think a subtext of this book is what was going on in america. martin luther king jr. has a connection to this story because reverend hale was a leading minister in the east high school area, and he had brought dr. king to columbus several times, and so when many of these athletes had been seven and eight, they had watched king in 1959-1960, lead marchs up and down east broadway street right past the high school, and so for

them to have to take that blow in the summer of '68, in the spring of '68 when martin luther king jr. is assassinated, many of them had seen him in the flesh and so it was a heartbreaking moment for the nation, for the city, but on the personal level, for many, many, many people. they ate at a restaurant called the novelty food bar in mrs. batey operated that food bar and she was on stage with martin luther king jr. when he gave his "i have dream" niche 1963. so a lot of connection to the nation to dr. king, leading up to this amazing moment. >> host: was this your high school? >> guest: no. i went to east high for one year, but then i finished at

franklin heights, so, i knew that it was a special place. it was segregated. still 14 years after the 1954 brown v. board of education, and the book actually ends with a case at the u.s. supreme court where the parents and the naacp sue the city of columbus for segregation and they win, and so the athletes become a part of a major lawsuit at the end of the book. >> host: how many of the athleted were you able to track down. >> guest: of the 12 basketball players, i tracked down ten of them. that was 15 baseball players, i tracked down 12. so, it was amazing.

bob hart, basketball coach, had passed away but his three daughters still lived in the area of columbus, and they turned over to me his world war ii letters, his archives, all of his notes, all of his scouting reports on the games. baseball, their coach, paul pinell who still lives in columbus and i was so fortunate that he was a pack rat because he had all of the score books from every baseball game that year, so i really, really, really got lucky with paul pinell, the head baseball coach and the assistant basketball coach, and so in a way i had his insight from both of the sports and that was extremely helpful. two other players from the

basketball team eddy rat ratliff and dwight lamarr were first team all-americans in 1974. there were only five members of the team, and so almost half the team came from this one high school who i wrote about. two of the five were first team college all-americans. >> host: the name of the book is "tigerland: a city divided, nation torn apart a mam cal season of healing. "what book of yours are you best known for? >> host: that would be "the butler" turned into a motion picture. that starred, among others, oprah winfrey, forrest whitaker, cuba gooding jr., david, jane

fanned fonda and vanessa red grave. a pretty special movie came out in 2013. i think you can safely say it sort of took america by storm. it was an mace ab amazing hart felt story of a gentleman i tracked down who worked for eight american presidents. his name was eugene allen, and he had quite a life. he started in the white house wore harry truman and went up to president reagan he had quite an epic life. >> host: author wil haygood, thank you for your time. ...