We were marching from Montgomery, Alabama, '65
Freedom riders, Jim Crow heros, 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
(chorus) 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 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