In 2009, an elderly Cecil Gaines recounts his life story, while waiting in the White House. Gaines was raised on a cotton plantation in 1926 Macon, Georgia, by his sharecropping parents. One day, the farm's owner, Thomas Westfall, rapes
Cecil's mother, Hattie Pearl. Cecil's father confronts Westfall, and is
shot dead. Cecil is taken in by Annabeth Westfall, the estate's
caretaker, and trains Cecil as a house servant.
In his teens, he leaves the plantation and his mother, who has been
mute since the incident. One night, Cecil breaks into a hotel pastry
shop and is, unexpectedly, hired. He learns advanced skills from the
master servant, Maynard, who, after several years, recommends Cecil for a
position in a Washington D.C.
hotel. While working at the D.C. hotel, Cecil meets and marries Gloria,
and the couple have two children: Louis and Charlie. In 1957, Cecil is
hired by the White House during Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration. White House maître d'
Freddie Fallows shows Cecil around, introducing him to head butler
Carter Wilson and co-worker James Holloway. At the White House, Cecil
witnesses Eisenhower's reluctance to use troops to enforce school
desegregation in the South, then the President's resolve to uphold the
law by racially integrating Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.
The Gaines family celebrates Cecil's new occupation with their
closest friends and neighbors, Howard and Gina. Louis, the elder son,
becomes a first generation university student at Fisk University in Tennessee, although Cecil feels that the South is too volatile; he wanted Louis to enroll at Howard University instead. Louis joins a student program led by Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) activist James Lawson, which leads to a nonviolent sit-in at a segregated diner,
where he is arrested. Furious, Cecil confronts Louis for disobeying
him. Gloria, suffering from her husband's long working hours, descends
into alcoholism and has an affair with the Gaineses' neighbor, Howard.
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