- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: You know the damage one ignorant Negro can do? We were in France in the first war; we'd won decorations. But the white boys had told all them French gals that we had tails. Then they found this ignorant colored soldier, paid him to tie a tail to his ass and run around half-naked, making monkey sounds. Put him on the big round table in the Cafe Napoleon, put a reed in his hand, crown on his head, blanket on his shoulders, and made him eat *bananas* in front of all them Frenchies. Oh, how the white boys danced that night... passed out leaflets with that boy's picture on it. Called him Moonshine, King of the Monkeys. And when we slit his throat, you know that fool asked us what he had done wrong?
- Private Wilkie: Is it true, sir, that when they found him, his stripes and insignia were still on the uniform?
- Captain Davenport: Yes.
- Private Wilkie: Something's wrong, ain't it, sir? I mean, those Klan boys, they can't stand to see us in these uniforms. They usually take the stripes and stuff off before they lynch us.
- Drill Sergeant: [a group of soldiers are doing calisthenics when Captain Davenport drives by in a jeep. Everyone stops and stares in astonishment] Alright, soldiers, let's get back to those exercises! Haven't you seen a colored officer before?
- GI: No, sir! Have you?
- Colonel Nivens: Remember, you're the first colored officer most of these men ever seen. The Army expects you to set an example for the colored troops... and be a credit to your race.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: Them Nazis ain't all crazy. Whole lot of people just can't seem to fit in to where things seem to be going. Like you, CJ. See, the Black race can't afford you no more. There used to be a time, we'd see someone like you singin', clownin', yassuh-bossin'... and we wouldn't do anything. Folks liked that. You were good. Homey kind of nigger. When they needed somebody to mistreat, call a name or two, they paraded you. Reminded them of the good old days. Not no more. The day of the Geechee is gone, boy. And you're going with it.
- Private First Class Peterson: CJ was sleeping when I came in. It's Waters. Can't y'all see that? You know, I seen 'em before. We had 'em in Alabama. White man give him a small-ass job as a servant and when the boss ain't looking, that old copy-cat nigger act like he the new boss. Shouting, ordering people around. You see, arresting CJ, that'll get Waters another stripe. Next, it'll be you or you. You see, he can't look good unless he's standing on you. Cobb told him CJ was in here all evening. Waters didn't even listen, did he? Turning somebody in. "Well, look what I done, Captain-boss." Only reason he's in the Army is 'cause they know he'll do what they tell him to. I've seen this kind of fool before. Somebody's gonna kill him one of these days.
- Captain Davenport: Who gave you the right to judge? To decide who is fit to be a negro, and who is not? Who?
- [Last lines]
- Captain Taylor: I guess I'll have to get used to Negroes with bars on their shoulders, Davenport. You know, being in charge.
- Captain Davenport: Oh, you'll get used to it, Captain. You bet your ass on that. You'll get used to it.
- Captain Taylor: Eyes - front!
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: And if it wasn't for you Southern niggers, white folks wouldn't think we was all fools.
- Private First Class Peterson: Well, where are you from? England?
- Corporal Ellis: I've been driving this jeep for six months, sir. Only turned over twice.
- Captain Davenport: Twice?
- Corporal Ellis: Yes sir.
- Captain Davenport: Good.
- Captain Taylor: They're making a fool out of you. Can't you see? Will you take off those damn sunglasses?
- Captain Davenport: I like these. They're like MacArthur's.
- Captain Davenport: Lets go see Sgt. Washington, drive.
- Corporal Ellis: Didn't go to well in there sir?
- Captain Davenport: You gotta hearing problem corporal?
- Corporal Ellis: No sir, I was born with big ears sir, my grandma had big ears, it runs in the family.
- Colonel Nivens: I've been commanding colored troops all my life, Davenport. The worst thing you can do, in this part of the country, is pay too much attention to the death of a negro under mysterious circumstances. Especially a soldier. People get itchy. Uneasy. White folk in the town, colored at the fort, keep turning this thing over. Sooner or later, you're bound to have an explosion.
- Private First Class Peterson: Sir, are there any suspects?
- Captain Taylor: None.
- Private Henson: Come on, now. Everybody knows it was the Klan.
- Captain Taylor: Were you an eyewitness, soldier?
- Private Henson: They lynched Jefferson the week I got here. Now, two weeks after that it was...
- Captain Taylor: Henson, unless you saw it, you keep your opinions to yourself.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: You're a noncommissioned officer in the Army of a country at war. The penalty for being drunk on duty is severe. So don't bring me no: "Us colored folks can't do nothin' unless they're drunk" shit as an excuse. You're supposed to be an example to your men.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: You're in the Army. Colored folks always talkin' about what they'll do if the white man give 'em a chance. You get it, and what do you do with it? You wind up drunk on guard duty. I don't blame the white man. Why the hell should he put colored and white together? You can't even guard your own quarters.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: We're men. Soldiers. And I don't intend for our race to be cheated of its place of honor and respect in this war because of fools like C.J.
- Corporal Ellis: I hope we get to fight soon, sir. Next, they'll have us picking this year's cotton crop.
- Captain Davenport: Don't worry, Corporal. They don't grow much cotton in Germany.
- Captain Taylor: We don't want anybody from this fort going into Tynin looking for rednecks.
- Corporal Cobb: May I speak, sir?
- Captain Taylor: Cobb?
- Corporal Cobb: Colonel Nivens must know nobody colored killed the Sarge.
- Captain Taylor: Well, this is precautionary, Cobb. We can't have the Army engaged in revenge on civilians.
- Big Mary: [singing] It was about pourin' that whiskey, Made that soldier lose his stripes, So, keep on drinkin' soldier, Big Mary, she ain't got all night, I pour so much whiskey, I make him stagger, I make him stagger, I make him stagger home in the street, Come early in the mornin', He'll stagger up and down the street...
- Captain Taylor: Let me explain something to you. You go near Tynin in your uniform, sounding white, and charging local people, and you'll wind up just as dead as Waters.
- Corporal Ellis: This is where they killed Sergeant Waters last month, sir.
- Captain Davenport: Why did you say, "They" killed him, Corporal? Who's "they"?
- Corporal Ellis: The Klan, sir. They ain't too crazy about us tan Yanks down here.
- Big Mary: Oh, yes, I'm gonna tell you somethin' CJ, right now.
- [singing]
- Big Mary: I'm gonna kill the man, Then, I'm gonna turn around and kill myself, I'm gonna kill him with a razor, Yes, I am and then I'm gonna use it on myself, I'd rather see us both dead and buried, Than see him with someone else...
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: Army's not for my son. See, when this war is over, things are gonna change. I want him to be ready for it. I'll send him to some big white college. Let him rub elbows with the whites. Learn the white man's language, how he does things.
- Sergeant Washington: White don't rub off.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: Well, what are we gonna do? Stay behind in everything? Hell, you can see it in the Army. The white man's running rings around us.
- Private Wilkie: Lot of us ain't had the chance them white boys had, Sarge.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: That ain't no excuse.
- C.J. Memphis: [singing] Well, it's a low down, Low down dirty shame, Yes, it's a low down, Low down dirty shame, They say we're fightin' Hitler, But, they won't let us in the game, Lawd! Yes, it's a low down dirty shame...
- Big Mary: Drink up, boys. A man can't make no money when the US Army stops sippin'. So drink up now. 'Cause I need a new car.
- Corporal Cobb: CJ. Who was that fine river-hip thing you was talkin' to before the game? The woman had tits like two helmets. Did you see the size of them knockers?
- Corporal Cobb: Will you all let CJ tell me about this woman? She looked mighty good to me, CJ.
- C.J. Memphis: All she asked me for was my autograph.
- Corporal Cobb: She looked like she was askin' for more than that. Moved in close. Breathin' heavy. Wavin' them tits all in your face.
- C.J. Memphis: I hear they're on the verge of gettin' all of us together. The colored, the white. Say they want one army.
- Private First Class Peterson: You can forget that, CJ. White folks ain't never gonna integrate no army.
- C.J. Memphis: I don't know. If they do, I'm gonna be ready for 'em.
- [singing]
- C.J. Memphis: Get me a bright red zoot suit, And a pair of patent leather shoes, And the woman sittin' at home waitin', For the day we get the news, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Look out, Adolf Hitler, You and Tojo gonna be singin' the blues...
- C.J. Memphis: If I'd given that gal what she asked me for, she'd give me somethin' I didn't want. Around home, there's a fella folks used to call Little Jimmy One-Leg. - on account of his thing was so big. A couple of years ago, a young pretty thing laid clap on Jimmy so bad he lost the one good leg he had. Now folks just call him Little. That pretty young thing talking to me ain't look too clean.
- Private First Class Peterson: You ain't got to come in here calling us names.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: The Nazis call you "Schwarze". You gonna complain to Hitler that he hurt your little feelings?
- Private Smalls: Why can't those officers paint their own club?
- Corporal Cobb: Hell no, Smalls. Let the Great Colored Cleanup Company do it. Our motto is: Anything you don't want to do, the colored troops will do for you.
- Captain Taylor: Memphis, about that catch you made in center field today: How in the hell did you get up that high?
- C.J. Memphis: They say I got bird in my blood, sir.
- Captain Taylor: I hope it's an American Eagle.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: Got everybody on the post thinking he's a strong, black buck. White boys envy his strength. His speed. Power in his swing. Then this colored champion lets those same white boys call him "Shine" or "Sambo" and he just smiles. Can't talk. Can barely read or write his own name and don't care. He'll tell you they like him or that colored folks ain't supposed to have but so much sense.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: My daddy told me, we got to turn our backs on his kind. Close our ranks to the chitlins, collard greens, cornbread style. We are men, soldiers. I don't intend for our race to be cheated out of its place of honor and respect in this war because of fools like CJ.
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: You're just like the rest of them, Wilkie: ignorant, scared. Stop thinking like a nigger!
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: Let me tell all you fancy-assed ballplayin' negroes something. The reasons for any orders given by a superior officer is none of you-all's business. You obey them. This country is at war. And you niggers are soldiers, nothin' else.
- Private First Class Peterson: What kind of colored man are you?
- Master Sergeant Vernon Waters: I'm a soldier, Peterson. And the kind of colored man that don't like lazy, shiftless negroes.
- Private First Class Peterson: I seen 'em before. We had 'em in Alabama. White man give him a small-ass job as a servant and when the boss ain't looking that old copy-cat nigger act like he the new boss. Shouting, ordering people around. You see, arresting CJ, that'll get Waters another stripe. Next, it'll be you or you. You see, he can't look good unless he's standing on you.
- Corporal Ellis: We're shipping out. They finally letting us negroes fight! Hitler ain't got a chance. And after what Joe Louis did to Max Schmeling!
- Colonel Nivens: This thing has been blown all the hell out of shape. This is the Army's business. Not the NAACP. Not the Negro press. Not those paper-shufflin' desk jockeys in Washington.