From One Battlefield to the Next

No parades came around when we arrived in America Not for our group anyway The only welcome was from a place far away from the Midwest: Seattle The only place that praised a Negro infantry Coming back from bloody South Korea It wasn’t easy coming back without two of my best friends Two swell guys, blown up next to me Even back in training no one cared about us Even though we fought for our country I was born here like my father and his father and his All of the white people stayed in the comfortable camp in San Antonio While we suffered in a grimy camp fifteen miles away, close to the Mexican border For those eight long weeks When I joined the Army in 1946, I travelled from Indianapolis to San Antonio I was surrounded by my future Negro comrades That might have been one of the most racist times of my life The insults, the harassment, everyone staring at you Like you have the Bubonic Plague The constant butt of the joke We were stowed at the back of the train like luggage The smoke exhaust was deadly A couple of boys didn’t make it when we arrived at our stop Training was easy; it was the breaks that killed us We were allowed to go into town in San Antonio to relax Or, should I say, white soldiers were allowed to relax Everywhere we tried to go in town, we would see the same signs “NO NEGROS ALLOWED” The townsfolk would throw trash at us, threatening to remove our uniforms One way or another Still we held our heads high Fought when the time was right Didn’t pay attention to the sneers and threats We belong to the American Army And I will fight and tell the legacy of the time we were threatened, cursed and even When some of our own never came back, one way or another I was almost blinded by the blast that Blew up my best friends I will share my story with everyone and my fiancée We still fight this battle today as we travel from San Francisco to our homes, our families The train I ride now is different; people are actually cheering us Regardless of our skin color I’m actually being served, being waited on As I travel home to greet my fiancée I don’t forget what racial problems I’ll have at home From one battlefield to the next.