1. Essays written as an Intern at University of Southern Indiana-
Rice Library: University Archives and Special Collections
A Simple Thank You from Martin Luther King Jr.
A thank you letter from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is not a simple paragraph. Rather, King pours his
heart and soul into telling you how grateful he is for whatever you did to deserve the thank you letter.
One such letter was recently discovered in a communal studies collection in the University Archives
and Special Collections. Some of the phrasing in this simple thank you note included,
“Without your moral support we would be caught in a dungeon of despair without knowing that many
people all over the nation are supporting us in our struggle. By aiding us in this significant way, you are
telling the world that the rights of Negroes cannot be trampled in any community without impairing the
rights of every other American”
This was the wording found in the letter sent to Irving Wolfe received from Dr. King in July of 1963.
Wolfe was the president of Skyview Acres Co-operative, which was an integrated residential
community in New York state. The communal group was founded just after World War II in 1942.
This co-operative held a block party to raise funds for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC). Wolfe had written a letter explaining this, describing how over 400 men, women, and
children from across the county turned up to help the event, and enclosed a check with the letter for
$567.56.
Dr. King, SCLC’s first president, could have just sent a simple letter thanking Wolfe for his efforts; he
didn’t have to send anything at all as a matter of fact. The fact that Dr. King took the time to detail how
important Wolfe’s donation was to his goal of ending discrimination showed the true character of the
civil rights leader. Dr. King notes how much moral and financial support the donation provided, saying
that without fund raising efforts like these, the SCLC would be “…unable to work effectively toward
its goal of the full integration of the Negro into all aspects of American life.” Dr. King concludes his
speech (disguised as a letter) by saying:
“I am confident that if we continue to gain this type of support, this sweltering summer of discontent
can be transformed into an invigorating autumn of justice and freedom for all people.”
Students processing archive collections in the History 323 class, Introduction to Archival Theory, found
this letter while working through stacks of correspondence. Student Logan Walters found the letter and
said the header on the page, “Southern Christian Leadership Conference” caught his attention so he
pulled it out of the pile and saw Martin Luther King Jr.’s signature. “It is one of those truly
enlightening moments in archive work,” said Archives & Reference Librarian, Jennifer Greene.
“History comes to life when you see a real signature and read the actual words put down by a man as
wise and poetic as Martin Luther King Jr.”

2. Cultural Views of American Soldiers during
World War II by Cody Benke
There isn’t much that people don’t know about World War II; its battles and carnage are well
documented. The atomic bomb that came from this war had the biggest impact, as it would change
post-war policies and how countries dealt with one another. Though these subjects are obviously
important, there is another topic that shouldn’t get swept aside and should be considered, especially for
an American nation that had used an isolation policy for so long leading up to World War II. The
cultural views that American soldiers had entering the war would affect how they thought of the places
and people they encountered, and would be changed by what they saw and experienced. Two
collections in the University Archives & Special Collections (UASC) demonstrate the attitudes and
experiences of soldiers during the war, the Kenneth McCutchan and Chris Nix collections.
Though soldiers were not allowed to keep journals or diaries many did, with men like Ken McCutchan
providing a unique look at how American soldiers viewed the war in times outside of the battlefield.
Another soldier, Chris Nix Jr. would be trained as a paratrooper for an invasion of Japan that never
occurred, but the people and culture he encountered in Japan would give him a greater experience than
the invasion-that-never-was could have.
Raised as a farm boy in Oregon, Nix was told during training that he would be turned into a cold-
blooded killer, and would be glad later on that he never had to become that, but that doesn’t mean he
didn’t see death. Instead of corpses lying on the ground, Nix saw this death in the form of a defeated
Japanese crowd watching him and the rest of General Douglas MacArthur’s honor guard in Japan after
the end of the war in the Pacific. In Nix’s words, the crowd “…looked like their world had ended.”
The diaries and information kept by Ken McCutchan during his time in the war provides a great source
of American soldiers and how their views on culture were changed by the experience of war. When
McCutchan was stationed in North Africa, it gave him a chance to view Muslims and Arabs for the first
time. Knowing that soldiers would be confused by the new culture, the War Department issued pocket
guides about North Africa (as well as one for Paris, which dispelled the rumors of wild women, among
other things). In the guide, information about Islam and Muslims in general is mentioned, including
how to eat properly with them and how to avoid insulting them. One image shows McCutchan perhaps
embracing this new culture, as he sends a postcard back to his mother with him on a camel enjoying
himself.
However, McCutchan’s views on culture would be wiped away by the things he experienced, thanks in
no part to the isolation policy that America had been using. Though the American government tried to
prepare the soldiers for going overseas with the guides, it didn’t provide anything for the huge cultural
differences they would encounter. One of these cultural differences was how they treated women as
good for nothing more than labor and birthing, with suggestions to warn women when entering a house
so they cannot be seen. These cultural differences would lead to resentment with the soldiers, with
many holding the natives in a negative light. McCutchan described the Arabs as living in deplorable
conditions with their animals. McCutchan noted the good things of Islam at one point, such as their
determination to adhere to Islamic rules (while some did consume alcohol most did not, which was a
big rule for them to follow). However, McCutchan wrote down that he considered it a “…soul-
withering faith…” which must have made it hard to consider them anything but strangers. But
McCutchan’s negative views of these people are gradually altered, with him noting after celebrating
Easter that it was the same here as it was back home. These feelings would grow stronger as the natives
experienced more of the war in the form of casualties. Men would bring their children to medics after

3. they stepped on mines and would get blown apart. This would give the soldiers a look at death they
may not have seen before, with McCutchan, knowing that war was brought to these people, noting that
“…It is the poor innocent natives who will suffer most from this war. They will be killed for years to
come by mines that will be left here undiscovered.”
As McCutchan moved around to various towns in France, they were viewed in the same suspicious
light by the French as the Americans viewed them and other Europeans. Many French believed that
America was nothing but a land of gangsters and crude, uncivilized people. McCutchan expressed the
viewpoint that these people wanted nothing more from American than money and men. Despite these
issues, McCutchan saw the opportunity that these various cultures can come together at some point. He
wrote to a Reverend back home that even though barriers to language and culture exist, there is an
understanding among the people, and hopes that the world will realize this common ground. While
many soldiers probably began feeling this way, the US military was determined to destroy Nazi
Germany at its roots. A pamphlet sent out towards the end of the war directed soldiers in how to handle
relations with Germans. Condemning them all for what the Nazis had done, the pamphlet iterates the
monstrous nature of Germans and forbade all but the most necessary communications with them until
they have redeemed themselves in the eyes of the world.
World War II and the destruction it caused would forever change the world as we know it today. Entire
military policies are devoted to atomic energy with countries rushing to get their hands on as many
bombs as they can, with nations such as Israel being created in the aftermath. However, the cultures
that American soldiers experienced, and brought with them, should have a role in discussion as well.
How much of our policies would be shaped or copied from what we saw European nations doing? For
the soldiers, who only knew of American life, these new experiences would doubtfully change how
they viewed the rest of the war as well as the rest of their lives. This can be seen in the records kept by
soldiers like Ken McCutchan and Chris Nix Jr which are located in the archives, along with other war
related collections.