Journalist and author Wil Haygood credits Upward Bound with giving him the foundation to succeed in college.
That was 34 years ago, but Wil Haygood ― the renowned journalist and author whose writing inspired the film The Butler ― says he remembers it “like it was yesterday.”
“I knew in my heart and soul that this was a monumental moment for little Wil Haygood,” he recalled.
At stake was a place in Upward Bound, founded as an experimental program in 1964 as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, with a goal of helping students from low-income families get a college education.
A few weeks after his interview, Haygood received a letter accepting him in the Upward Bound college prep program taking place that summer of 1970 on the campus of Ohio Dominican University. “The college wasn’t but a few miles from our housing project, but as a poor kid, you never set foot there,” Haygood said. “It was as if I had been lifted up and taken to an oasis.”
Haygood flourished during three summers in the federally funded program and credits the professors there ― and their tough-love approach ― with girding him to succeed in college.
“They didn’t allow us to make excuses because we were Black or poor,” he said. “They said when you get to college, it will be 10 times harder.”
