Cecil Gaines was a sharecropper's son who grew up in the 1920s as a domestic servant for the white family who casually destroyed his. Eventually striking out on his own, Cecil becomes a hotel valet of such efficiency and discreteness in the 1950s that he becomes a butler in the White House itself. There, Cecil would serve numerous US Presidents over the decades as a passive witness of history with the American Civil Rights Movement gaining momentum even as his family has troubles of its own. As his wife, Gloria, struggles with alcoholism and his defiant eldest son, Louis, strives for a just world, Cecil must decide whether he should take action in his own way.
as Cecil Gaines
as Gloria Gaines
as Louis Gaines
as Richard Nixon
as Nancy Reagan
as Carter Wilson
as Hattie Pearl
as Howard
as James Holloway
as Cecil Gaines (15)
as Cecil Gaines (8)
as John F. Kennedy
as Thomas Westfall
as Annabeth Westfall
as Ronald Reagan
as Lyndon B. Johnson
as Dwight Eisenhower
as Carol Hammie
as Earl Gaines
as Freddie Fallows
as Martin Luther King Jr.
as Senator Kassebaum
as Charlie Gaines (15-18)
as Jackie Kennedy
as Gina
as Eldridge Huggins
as Lorraine
as Rev. James Lawson
as Maynard
as Abraham
as Mr. Jenkins
as R.D. Warner
as Charlie Gaines (10)
as White Usher
as Elroy
as Sherman Adams
as Herbert Brownell
as Olivia
as Woolworth Diner Patron #1
as Woolworth Diner Patron #2
as Caroline Kennedy
as Freedom Bus Journalist
as Freedom Bus Rider
as Helen Holloway
as Malcolm X Goer
as Pastor
as John Ehrlichman
as Bob Haldeman
as Senator Robertson
as Admiral Rochon
as Sophie Wilson (uncredited)
as Foxy (uncredited)
