The ink is black, the page is white;
Together we learn to read and write.
A child is black, a child is white;
The whole world looks upon the sight,
A beautiful sight!
And now a child can understand
That this is the law of the land, all the land!
The world is black, the world is white;
It turns by day and then by night.
A child is black, a child is white;
Together they grow to see the light, to see the light.
And now at last we plainly see;
We'll have a dance of liberty, liberty!(Repeat)
(2nd time thru the chorus repeat and fade on 'to see the light.')
"Black and White" is a song written in 1954 by David I. Arkin and Earl Robinson. It was first recorded by Pete Seeger featuring a black child, in 1956 from the album Love Songs for Friends & Foes. The most successful recording of the song was the pop version by Three Dog Night in 1972, when it reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard Easy Listening charts. Billboard ranked it as the number 63 song for 1972.
The song was inspired by the United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which outlawed racial segregation of public schools.
The original lyrics of the song opened with this verse, in reference to the court:
Their robes were black, their heads were white,
The schoolhouse doors were closed so tight,
Nine judges all set down their names,
To end the years and years of shame.
However, the versions of the song recorded by Greyhound and subsequently by Three Dog Night did not include this verse, making the song more universal and less historically specific.
