J. Aubrey Carpenter (Lincoln University, PA, April 1919); Philadelphia Tribune, July 10, 1920:

You who fought the Hun “over there”
On the shores of No-man’s Land,
Have now returned to your native soil
With honor and glory in hand.

But when you think of the blood that was shed
And the victims you have slain
For nothing save honor and glory’s sake,
It was seem all in vain.

No doubt you will wonder even more
When this though which seems to be;
Have I been fighting for justice and rights
Or this so-called democracy?
But still comes yet another thought
Which throbs the heart of man,
The words that have been uttered
“Universal equality of man.”

Can you conceive the idea expressed,
After all that has been done,
As murder and lynching still in the South,
While you were fighting the Hun?
You never will be satisfied
Not I, nor even the host,
Until guaranteed to live in peace
Among those who love you the most.

The new world is now downcast in shame
While the supreme who never cease
To detect the wrong and the right
Will send down triumph of peace.
Peace, peace and indurable peace–
A peace not only “overthere.”
But one from God who reigns on high,
For us here and everywhere.

[Poem appears in two categories: “Hope and the Future” and “Lynching”]