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