W&M Writers of Washington Presents
The War Within a War by Wil Haygood
Hosted by the W&M Washington Center
Wednesday, April 22, 2026 | 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
901 4th ST NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20001
Join us for a book talk with award-winning author and former correspondent for The Washington Post and The Boston Globe, Wil Haygood. Wil and Interim Director of the Lemon Project Dr. Jajuan Johnson will lead us on a deep dive into his book, The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home, which explores how the Vietnam War became a mirror for the struggle of Black Americans — fighting for freedom abroad while demanding equality at home — and a powerful lens through which to understand the racial and political divides that continue to shape American life.
Wil Haygood is the author of ten nonfiction books. His biography of Thurgood Marshall, Showdown, and his biography of White House butler Eugene Allen, The Butler, were New York Times bestsellers. The Butler was adapted into a film directed by Lee Daniels. His longtime journalism career — which took him around the world and into several war zones — was spent largely at The Boston Globe, where he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and The Washington Post, where he won numerous awards. A John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellow, a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow, and an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow, Haygood was the recipient of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrook Distinguished Achievement Award, an international prize bestowed by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. Haygood is a visiting scholar at Miami University in Ohio
A brief synopsis of The War Within a War:
Drawing on the lives of soldiers and officers, doctors and nurses, journalists and activists, artists and politicians, Haygood illuminates a generation caught between two battles: one on the front lines in Vietnam and another for justice and dignity in America.
Among those at the heart of the story are Air Force pilot Fred Cherry, the first Black officer capured by the North Vietnamese and a hero to millions back home; Dr. Elbert Nelson, a doctor who came to Vietnam after watching TV footage of the Watts riots in Los Angeles and soon found himself amid rising Black soldier protests overseas; Wallace Terry, a groundbreaking Black reporter determined to expose the dynamics of race and war to the American public and Philippa Schuyler, a biracial concert pianist who traveled to Vietnam to rescue mixed-race orphans, many fathered by Black soldiers, and died trying to bring them to safety.
Surrounding their experiences are the cultural and political forces of the era, including Martin Luther King Jr., Marvin Gaye, Berry Gordy, and Lyndon Johnson, whose voices and actions shaped a decade of turbulence and transformation.
The War Within a War is both sweeping history and intimate revelation, capturing the tragedies and triumphs, the honor and hypocrisies, the courage and cowardice that shaped an era and whose repercussions resonate today.
Light hors d'oeuvres are included with registration.