Over There
World War II

Dear Fellow Americans
I write this letter
Hoping times will be better
When this war
Is through
I'm a Tan-skinned Yank
Driving a tank
I ask, WILL V-DAY
BE ME-DAY, TOO?

I wear a U. S. uniform
I've done the enemy much harm
I've driven back
The Germans and the Japs
From Burma to the Rhine
On every battle line
I've dropped defeat
Into the Fascists' laps

I am a Negro American
Out to defend my land
Army, Navy, Air Corps--
I am there
I take munitions through
I fight--or stevedore, too
I face death the same as you do
Everywhere
I've seen my buddy lying
Where he fell
I've watched him dying
I promised him that I would try
To make our land a land
Where his son could be a man--
And there'd be no Jim Crow birds
Left in our sky

So this is what I want to know:
When we see Victory's glow
Will you still let old Jim Crow
Hold me back?
When all those foreign folks who've waited--
Italians, Chinese, Danes--are liberated
Will I still be ill-fated
Because I'm black?

Here in my own, my native land
Will the Jim Crow laws still stand?
Will Dixie lynch me still
When I return?
Or will you comrades in arms
From the factories and the farms
Have learned what this war
Was fought for us to learn?
When I take off my uniform
Will I be safe from harm--
Or will you do me
As the Germans did the Jews?
When I've helped this world to save
Shall I still be color's slave?
Or will Victory change
Your antiquated views?

You can't say I didn't fight
To smash the Fascists' might
You can't say I wasn't with you
In each battle
As a soldier, and a friend
When this war comes to an end
Will you herd me in a Jim Crow car
Like cattle?

Or will you stand up like a man
At home and take your stand
For Democracy?
That's all I ask of you
When we lay the guns away
To celebrate
Our Victory Day
WILL V-DAY BE ME-DAY, TOO?
That's what I want to know
Sincerely
GI Joe