Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too?

Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too?

Over There,

World War II.

Dear Fellow Americans,

I write this letter

Hoping times will be better

When this war

Is through.

Im a Tan-skinned Yank

Driving a tank.

I ask, WILL V-DAY

BE ME-DAY, TOO?

I wear a U. S. uniform.

Ive done the enemy much harm,

Ive driven back

The Germans and the Japs,

From Burma to the Rhine.

On every battle line,

Ive 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.

Ive seen my buddy lying

Where he fell.

Ive watched him dying

I promised him that I would try

To make our land a land

Where his son could be a man--

And thered be no Jim Crow birds

Left in our sky.

So this is what I want to know:

When we see Victorys glow,

Will you still let old Jim Crow

Hold me back?

When all those foreign folks whove waited--

Italians, Chinese, Danes--are liberated.

Will I still be ill-fated

Because Im 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 Ive helped this world to save,

Shall I still be colors slave?

Or will Victory change

Your antiquated views?

You cant say I didnt fight

To smash the Fascists might.

You cant say I wasnt 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?

Thats all I ask of you.

When we lay the guns away

To celebrate

Our Victory Day

WILL V-DAY BE ME-DAY, TOO?

Thats what I want to know.

Sincerely,

GI Joe.

Langston Hughes