Exciting to find the figures like Adam Clayton Powell junior, Sugar Ray Robinson, and Thurgood Marshall who were not born into Mainstream Society and who by dent of their enormous talent and gift sticks themselves into the fabric of the country via entertainment, politics, sports, or in marshalls case the law, in the case of the white house butler, extra ordinary service to the country. These figures, when i look back at the figures, society, culture, race and style. Gues guest there is legislation that congress powell, and sammy davis junior integrated nightclubs in the 1940s across the country. Armstrong and linda horn and sammy davis, junior, and Sugar Ray Robinson who fought the mob in new york who controlled the fight game. He wanted to give fighters some independence, himself especially. And of course, many epic cases that he fought before the United States victory, with the 1954 School Segregation case with brown versus board of education. When you look at all of these men, you look at the story of 20th Century America and how it matured and was forced to mature because of the figures. Host i want to show video of someone you mentioned and have you explain what you have seeing. Ms. Reagan is leaving after 34 years. You have been here so long and served so many people all over the world. You have supervised their service, and everybody is happy, so i think something invited me and my wife to the state dinner and it didnt bother me because i am used to serving and my wife and i saw a lot, and by the end, i was waiting on the table and told a friend to be careful and make sure he keep an eye on her and dont let her drink it all. Hosost who was that . Guest that was eugene alan. A great white house butler. I wrote a story about him in 2008 that appeared on the cover of the Washington Post. Really one of the most neat people i met him and his wife before the election. It was amazing how i met him. I was a National Writer for the Washington Post and on the campaign trail with then senator obama. I was in north carolina. I walked outside, and three ladies were crying and they said they were crying because their fathers had kicked them out of their homes because they supported the africanamerican candidate on stage. The three young ladies were College Students and they were white. It was a powerful moment. I said wow, even though Hillary Clinton was still in the race in 2008 at that time, obama had started this Epic Movement and some of it was manifested in the tears of those three young girls who were crying. In the middle of the night in my hotel room i said he is going to win. He is going to climb that big, hard mountain and he is going to take this country to a level where race and your imagination intersect. I ran back to the newsroom and told my editor, this guy, senator obama is going to win and break history. My editor, steve, thought i was just too tired. That i was exhausted. And i said no, steve, please listen to me. He is going to win and because he is going to win i want to go wherever i have to go and find an africanamerican who worked in the service job before the 1964 civil rights bill was passed so this africanamerican, who i kind of figured was out there who had worked in the white house before legal integration, it would mean so much to him or her to see an africanamerican, who i predicted, would take the white house. Looking back it does sound like a bit of a fable because steve had to have faith in me that i would find such a person. I started looking. I was looking for somebody that did the laundry at the white house, somebody who worked in the rose garden at the white house, or the person who shined shoes or a maid, and the last word dropped off my lips or a butler. I dont know why, i knew no butlers in life, but it just rolled out. I started making phone calls. The first people i called was the white house and they said they dont divulge personal information about who has or hasnt worked there. And i said did abe lincoln every work there . And that made be keep looking on and 20 phone calls turned into 30 and then somebody calls out of the clear blue from tampa, florida as it were, and says that there was a gentlemen by the name of eugene alan who she knew worked at the white house for two president s and heard i was looking because her daughter was at a party in georgetown with me. This is how it works for journalist. You have to knock on doors and let people know you are looking for. There was a man named eugene alan who worked for the president and i should try to find him. On the 57th call a man was on the other end of the phone, i said i am mr. Haygood, i am a journalist working on a story, and we are five days from the election, and the africanamerican senator who the girls were crying for got the nomination and there was one epic step to take. I told mr. Alan i wanted to come over and talk about his life because i had heard he worked for two president s and he said you got that wrong. I worked for eight president s. Harry truman to ronald reagan. That is eight. And of course, you know, i went over and spent this amazing time with him and his wife and wrote that story about this man who worked in the white house and saw history move in front of his eyes. Host this was a little reverse because you wrote the article, thene the movie came out, then the book. Guest yes, it was. Host how did that work . Guest the story was written and then the movie producer produced the spider man movies. She reached me by phone and said the story made her cry and see wanted to buy the writes and make a movie. Rights. So it is best not to hop up and down when someone from hollywood calls, you know, for the simple fact, who knows if something will ever get made. So she was insistent and she came to washington, d. C. To visit me with williams, her assistant at the time. Now pam williams has her own company. But she was telling me about the movie directors who were interested in this story about this man who had worked at the white house and saw a whole lot of change in the country. And then lord dies and iary nothing. Everybody in hollywood who i had been talking to goes silent. And williams, tila johnson, who was the cofounder of bet, they ban together and bring in lee daniels the director. They start raising money and all of a sudden pam williams calls me and says hey, we found the actor who is going to play the butler. I am at home, sitting on my sofa eating a Peanut Butter and jelly sandwich and i said who is it going to be for she said forest whittaker. And she calls a day later saying guess what . We found the butlers life. And i said who is that going to be . And she said are you sitting down and she said sit down. Oprah winfry. And i said pam, you are pulling my leg, now. Oprah winfry hasnt acted in 17 careers and she is going to play the butlers wife years. And she said yes, oprah loves the story that much. And other cast members fell into place. I went down to new orleans where we were filming and this is going to get back to your question. I am standing on the movie set and all of these actors are Walking Around in between a scene and there is jane fonda, there is Terence Howard, there is cuba gooding, junior, there is lee sheber, and are of these great actors. I just see it. And i just said it, nobody really i just said it musing almost. I said my goodness somebody should write a book to capture the moment of all of this talent on the movie set making the movie about a butler and his wife. And Terence Howard happened to be walking by and he said you are the writer you ought to write the book. And that is how the butler book was born. That actor put the idea inside me. When i got home to washington, d. C. I was able to get in touch with a book editor, dawn davis, and she wanted to do it and i started writing the book. It went from article, movie, to book. How true from what you learned from ms. And mr. Alan was the movie . I learned a lot about the movie making business. There was a screen writer who wrote a beautiful script and lee daniels told me i want to tell your story and open it up and cover it. Lee daniels, the director, wanted to do this. He had this family, the story was going to be anchored to this family and there were changes but the theme of the whole movie i feel stayed true to the story. There was one big difference. Charles, the son of the butler, he did go to vietnam but survived and in the movie he died. In real life, there was only one son and in the movie there were two. Host did alan share stories about the president s he worked with . Guest yeah, he was a bit, how can i put it, he was a bit shy in certain cases, but yes, he did. He saw this life played out through the bills and legislation being passed. It meant something to him when eisenhower passed the civil rights bill, it went something with president kennedy went to uv and talked about the historic clashes at ole miss and James Meredith and trying to integrate the school, it meant something to him when dr. King visited the white house, it meant something to him when news floated into the white house that there had been a big clash in little rock over the School Integration measure. So all of these president s did something at one time that stood out to him. He said something that was very touching about president kennedy. He was overseas, i think in switzerland, and this would have been maybe 1962 and mr. Alan had about six hours off that day and he wanted to go into this little town and get a gift for his wife and the store clerk, he had 100 bill or a large bill in their currency, and the store clerk told him that she didnt have change and wanted to go across the street. He was the only person in the store. She wanted him to watch the store for her. He told me, he said, 1962, in georgetown, store clerk most likely would not have asked me to watch their store while they went down the street. He said and that type of dignity bestowed upon them almost brought tears to his eyes. And of course he said if anybody would have come in and tried to harm her store in any way he would have fought them he said to the death. And that is just a lovely little moment about, you know, history, what he took from his travels around the world with these president s. Guest wil haygood, he seemed according to your book, have somewhat of a special relationship with eisenhower and reagan. Guest yes, he did. I think with the eisenhower connection, mr. Alans son, charles, was going to school in 1954 and the epic brown v board of education decision came down from the Supreme Court deseg grating the school system. So you have a father, who is a butler walking into the white house, looking at this president knowing that socially the nation now is about to shift. Of course that took three years and that came about in little rock, arkansas at Central High School in the fall of 1957 when the nine black children walked into the school and they were pelted with mobs and racial epitit and it was a horrific day for these school children. Mr. Alan had to see that and he had to wonder would Something Like this happen to my son and what are you going to do, mr. President . Of course he would not dare ask president eisenhower that but that had to be on his mind. Will my child be hurt . This is a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court and the buck stops with you. I am sure mr. Alan was looking in an extra sensory way for the country and the white house to put the weight behind the Supreme Court decision. And president eisenhower did and sent the troops into little rock to protect the children. To be a parent up close with a man who did that, must have been a very magical moment for him, and president eisenhower painted an oil portrait after that and gave it to mr. Alan as a gift. When president eisenhower was out of the white house he would invite mr. Alan to go golfing with him. Man to man, would you like to play golf, and that must have been a beautiful thing. Host he ddid he live to see president obama inaugurated . Yes, the transition of the president elect came. They saw the story and sent a vip inviitation to mr. Alan and to his son to go to the swearing in. We went on that cold morning, mr. Alan, my son charles, and me, and it was cold and you could take the subway so far but then you had to walk. We were walking and mr. Alan was breathing very heavily, he was elderly and frail, and i felt bad and i said mr. Alan, i think that we should stop. I think there is a lot of heavy pain inside of him aside from his elements. But he looked at me when i said that and he said you hold my right arm, and looked at his son and said charles, you hold my left arm, and just dont let me drop because i am not turning around. It hit me why i wanted to do such a story in the first place. A man who had seen what he had seen, who had been born and raised in the south, and now this moment. So, we were taking or shown our vip seats and the living president s who he had served under walked out and he was talking about them as if they were his friends. There is president conner over there, he is looking okay. And you know, there is president bush, good man. Things like that. He said with the nations first africanamerican president , mr. Alan, the butler who started in the basement at the white house as a pantry man looked at me and said when i was in the white house, you could not even dream that you could dream of a moment like this. He used the word dream twice. It was very, very touching. He had saw so much in his life and was living to see with his own eyes an africanamerican at the highest oath for the highest office in the great United States of america. Host from your book the butler, looking back over my own writing it seems eugene alan was a cap stone to the fascinating figures i had interviewed in the years past who had a link to turmoil inside the white house. Guest yes. I mean, i can just look at the life of Thurgood Marshall who was the naacp attorney who dreamed of the naacp legal fund beg a separate arm from the naacp to fight legal cases roughly throughout the American South but on the east coast, west coast and midwest. On the day president johnson nominated marshall to the Supreme Court in 1967 there were three butlers in the white house and one of those butlers was eugene alan. The law had stopped mr. Alan from doing things. In the 50s, we saw the law elevating the life of mr. Alan. That day in 1967, there was history, there was the majesty there in the white house of mr. Alan serving marshall. Congressman, you were a warier and sammy davis junior was a warrior in the arena of entertainment, sugar ray robins robinson, marshall was an warier in the realm of law. And then you have a genuine patriot, mr. Alan, you know, who served people and was unknown, had no fame, his only fame was that he worked under the American Flag at 1600 pennsylvania avenue every day. He never missed a day of work, loved the president s. I asked him during my time spent with him if he was a democrat or republican and he said you can just put down that i am an american. That is good enough. Put that into story. It was lovely. Host june 13th, 1967, here is some videos he is solicitor general marshall, the best known negro lay lawyer of the country. The first of this race so honored. Host why did he pick Thurgood Marshall . Guest i think the president johnson had a great sense of reverence for the company, and so he seized a moment in history. I think he had had done a lot of work to get to 1964 civil rights bill passed, and then came to 1965, Voting Rights act, i think, the president johnson said, if i can find a brilliant africanamerican jurist to integrate the United StatesSupreme Court, then that would be the final nail in the coffin of white supremacy. Ever since George Washington started nominating the Supreme Court justices, they had all been white men, and so for many people it was unthinkable that one of the nine would be an africanamerican, and marshall had thought that he won 29 cases before the u. S. Sprem court. Most lawyers never get one victory in front of the Supreme Court, so his place had already been made in history. He had been a federal Appeals Court judge and the solicitor general, and Lyndon Johnson, i think, knew, if i can make this happen, it will be a dazzling moment in the nations history. And it will be something that is both right and righteous, and he started shifting the gears before that moment and made it happen. Oddly enough there was no vacancy when Lyndon Johnson started thinking of it, and he had to convince associate Justice Tom Clark to step down, it was very shrewd how he did that and, explain it in the book. I can tell you quickly if you would like. Lyndon johnson was master of the senate, of course, as he has been called by the great writer robert karrow. He was, and so he called tom clark, who johnson had known because they were friends in texas. They were both from texas and they had known each other, and Lyndon Johnson is thinking, Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court, no vacancy, what can i do . And he said, tom, i want to appoint your son, ramsey, attorney general. Goodness, i cant do it because youre on the Supreme Court, and a lot of people would see a conflict of interest, and, my goodness, he is your only son, and i know that dynami