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.