The years covered by the material in this collection are 1942-1947 and 1954, but the papers represent primarily the period in which William C. Haygood was in the United States Army, April 5, 1943 to November 12, 1945. The collection contains the letters he wrote to his wife and to his parents while still stationed in the United States and after reaching the European theater. It includes interviews and news releases he wrote as the American army advanced into Germany.
Haygood entered the Army Air Force, was transferred to the Signal Corps within a few months, and later that same year was transferred to the Army Specialized Training Program. He departed for the European theater of war on December 4, 1944. Because of his training and language background, by the time his unit (Headquarters, 76th Infantry Division) arrived in France, Sgt. Haygood was serving as an interpreter. This gave him an opportunity to talk with many persons, including some released from concentration camps, and to be close to situations with which the usual army personnel had little or no contact. His letters reflect this, and his news releases and interviews, written from Germany as the American army moved in, are very descriptive.
Special reference should be made to three correspondents in the papers. While stationed in Paris, Sgt. Haygood became acquainted with Gertrude Stein and her companion, Alice B. Toklas. In letters of July 21 and August 10, 1945, he describes in some detail his visits to their apartment. After returning to the United States he received a letter from Gertrude Stein (circa January, 1946), and one from Alice B. Toklas (November 4, 1946) following Miss Stein's death.
For many years Mr. Haygood was a friend of Lillian Smith, co-editor of The South Today; and author of Strange Fruit (1944), Killers of the Dream (1949), and numerous articles and pamphlets. She wrote to him on June 1, 1954, concerning her plan to write a book following the Supreme Court decision of 1953, and asking Haygood to write a section from the standpoint of a white southern man telling “the way we learned and unlearned our racial lessons.”
