Open Letter to the President (Roy C)

Vietnam War: Soul, Gospel, & Funk Records: https://rateyourmusic.com/list/JBrumm...
Soul singer Roy C., born Roy Charles Hammond in Georgia, 1939, pleaded with the US president to end the war in Vietnam, in the protest song "Open Letter to the President" - released in 1971 on the New York label Alaga Records (# 1006) which he founded a year before in 1970. Thus, he presumably addressed his open letter to Richard Nixon, in the White House since January 1969. Roy C. recorded under the name The Honeydrippers, releasing the 1973 single "Impeach the President", about Nixon and the Watergate scandal. Earlier in his career he performed in the 1950s group The Genies.

In the first two verses of the song Roy C. imagined a world in which there would be "no more fighting in Vietnam" and that "everybody gonna be free". In the spoken-word segment at the end of the track, Roy C. called on the president to pay attention to all the protesters in the street and to "bring all our boys home". Note the reference to South Africa, one of the early songs to highlight apartheid. It also refered to the treatment of African-American in the US, and thus, another song that combined the issues of Vietnam and civil rights.

"People get ready there is a new day coming
Everybody gonna be free, a new day for you and me
They'll be no more fighting in Vietnam
Everybody gonna be free all over this land
Listen, Mr President, this is an open letter to you
I want to know why don't you stop the fighting
And bring all our boys home, but Mr. President
Can't you see all the protesters in the street....
They want to be free, everybody wants to be free
Way down in Georgia, they want to be free
South Africa, they want to be free, New York...
Up and down the street of Harlem they want to be free"