Even after slavery ended, for years many Black people were relegated to domestic work. They took what they could get and made the best of it. Some even worked at The White House.
Eugene Allen was one such butler. The Butler is loosely based on his life. The Butler follows fictional character Cecil Gaines, played by Forest Whitaker, from his childhood on a plantation to being a butler at The White House to meeting the first Black president.
The Butler manages to weave the experiences of Gaines with the plight of Black people during the Civil Rights Movement and beyond. Gaines’s son, played by David Oyelowo, was a Black radical who served as a foil to Gaines. Their relationship provided much of the conflict in the film as they rarely saw eye to eye.
The Butler was nominated for several awards and won a few, including NAACP Image Awards for Whitaker and Oyelowo for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. It is available here.
