Black & White

Black & White
 Janis Ian
 We were marching from Montgomery,
 Alabama, '65
 Freedom riders, Jim Crow heroes,
 come to keep the faith alive
 We were picking Southern cotton,
 registration for the vote
 We were one then
 We were young then
 when black & white still spoke
 Now it's all gone to pieces
 God alone knows why
 Just a story they call history
 written down in black & white
 And we set aside our anger,
 and we set aside our fears
 And we built a common future
 on the bedrock of our tears
 And we marched for the children
 and the millions without hope
 We agreed to believe,
 when black & white still spoke
 Now it's all gone to pieces
 God alone knows why
 Just a story they call history
 written down in black & white
 Nothing's sadder than the man who
 thinks he's free when he is chained
 to the prison of his hatred
 and a dream gone up in flames
 Colored only at the fountains,
 congregations, soda shops
 Colored only in the bathrooms
 and the cemetery lots
 And if Jesus was a black man
 or as white as Sambo's grin
 it's his words that we'd remember
 not the color of his skin
 It's all gone to pieces
 God alone knows why
 Just a story they call history
 written down in black & white