Black Man Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Starwatcher23 

Cover art for Black Man lyrics by Stevie Wonder

All true facts, and well researched!

"First man to die for the flag we now hold high" = Crispus Attucks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crispus_Attucks

"Guide of a ship on the first Columbus trip" = Pedro Alonzo Niño

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Alonso_Ni%C3%B1o

"The railroads for trains came on tracking that was laid by the yellow man" = Chinese railroad workers

http://web.stanford.edu/group/chineserailroad/cgi-bin/wordpress/

"Heart surgery was first done successfully by a black man" = Daniel Hale Williams (actually he was the second, but still...)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Hale_Williams

"Friendly man who died but helped the pilgrims to survive was a redman" = Squanto

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squanto

"Farm workers rights were lifted to new heights by a brown man" = Cesar Chavez

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesar_Chavez

"Incandescent light was invented to give sight by the white man" = Thomas Edison, of course

(No link necessary--I mean, really, if you don't know who Thomas Edison is...)

"First clock to be made in America was created by a black man" = Benjamin Banneker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Banneker

"Scout who used no chart helped lead Lewis and Clark was a redman" (actually a red WOMAN) --> Sacajawea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea

"Use of martial arts in our country got its start by a yellow man" --> This is undoubtedly true, though no one knows for sure who brought Asian martial arts here first. The closest we can get is Kanō Jigorō, who invented Judo and was on the Olympic committee as early as 1909.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kan%C5%8D_Jigor%C5%8D

"And the leader with a pen signed his name to free all men was a white man" --> Abraham Lincoln, obviously

(Ditto what I said for Edison)

@Starwatcher23 if you listen closely, Stevie Wonder does refer to Sacajawea as a "Red woman" at 3:08.