Wil Haygood was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, graduated from Franklin Heights High School and then attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio where he earned a degree in Urban Studies in 1976. He became a staff writer at the Boston Globe in 1984 and moved to the Washington Post in 2002. Wil’s latest book, The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home (2026) describes the experiences of Black soldiers and their families navigating racial injustice in America while fighting the war in Vietnam. It highlights the disproportionate death rate of Black soldiers, the rise of racial tension in the military, and the fight for voting rights at home.