"Black Man" is a track on the 1976 Stevie Wonder album ''

Songs in the Key of Life ''Songs in the Key of Life'' is the eighteenth studio album by American singer, songwriter and musician Stevie Wonder. A double album, it was released on September 28, 1976, by Tamla Records, a division of Motown. It was recorded primarily at Crys ...

''. The song was written by Wonder and

Gary Byrd Imhotep Gary Byrd (born March 14, 1949) is an American, New York City-based radio talk show host and executive producer, radio DJ, poet, songwriter, music recording artist and producer, rapper, writer and community advocate/activist. Byrd began h ...

. The song was written about Wonder's desire for worldwide interracial harmony. and criticism of racism, The lyrics referred prominently to Crispus Attucks, widely considered the first martyr of the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

. Wonder deliberately chose this theme as the

United States Bicentennial The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic. It was a central event ...

was underway at the time of recording.

Lyrics

The opening verses refer to 12 people, with four people per verse each, broken by the chorus and bridge. The song uses

color terminology for race Identifying human races in terms of skin color, at least as one among several physiological characteristics, has been common since antiquity. Such divisions appeared in rabbinical literature and in early modern scholarship, usually dividing hum ...

. # a black man – first man to die for the

American flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...

( Crispus Attucks) # the redman – first people on American ground (

Native American people Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States (Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United States are ...

) # a brown man – guide on the first Columbus trip (

Pedro Alonso Niño Pedro Alonso Niño (c. 1455 – c. 1505) was a Afro-Spanish explorer. He piloted the '' Santa María'' during Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492, and accompanied him on his third voyage in 1498 to Trinidad. Biography N ...

) # the yellow man – laid tracks for railroads ( Chinese workers) # a black man – first heart surgeon ( Dr. Daniel Hale Williams) # a redman – helped pilgrims to survive at Plymouth ( Squanto) # a brown man – leader for farm workers' rights ( Cesar Chavez) # a white man – inventor of

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxid ...

(

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventi ...

) # a black man – created first clock to be made in America (

Benjamin Banneker Benjamin Banneker (November 9, 1731October 19, 1806) was an African-American naturalist, mathematician, astronomer and almanac author. He was a landowner who also worked as a surveyor and farmer. Born in Baltimore County, Maryland, to a fr ...

) # a red woman – scout who helped lead

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...

( Sacagawea) # a yellow man – pioneer of martial arts in America ( Bruce Lee) # a white man – Emancipation Proclamation (

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

) The second section is a call-and-response format, calling out 17 people. #

Matthew Henson Matthew Alexander Henson (August 8, 1866March 9, 1955) was an African American explorer who accompanied Robert Peary on seven voyages to the Arctic over a period of nearly 23 years. They spent a total of 18 years on expeditions together.

– a black man – first man to set foot on the North Pole # Squanto – a redman – first American to show the pilgrims at Plymouth the secrets of survival in the New World # Sing Kee – a yellow man – soldier of Company G who won high honors for extraordinary heroism in World War I # Cesar Chavez – a brown man – leader of United Farm Workers who helped farm workers maintain dignity and respect # Dr. Charles Drew – a black man – founder of blood plasma and the director of the Red Cross blood bank # Sacagawea – a red woman – great American heroine who aided the Lewis and Clark Expedition # Hayakawa – a yellow man – famous educator and semanticist who made outstanding contributions to education in America # Garrett Morgan – a black man – invented the world's first stop light and the gas mask # Harvey William Cushing – a white man – American surgeon who was one of the founders of

neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and pe ...

– a black man – man who helped design the nation's capitol, made the first clock to give time in America and wrote the first almanac #

Hiawatha Hiawatha ( , also : ), also known as Ayenwathaaa or Aiionwatha, was a precolonial Native American leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. He was a leader of the Onondaga people, the Mohawk people, or both. According to some account ...

– a red man – legendary hero who helped establish the league of

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Michio Kushi (May 17, 1926 – December 28, 2014) was a Japanese educator who helped to introduce modern macrobiotics to the United States in the early 1950s. He lectured all over the world at conferences and seminars about philosophy, spiritual development, ...

– a yellow man – leader of the first

macrobiotic A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is a fad diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobiotic diets are to reduce ...

center in America # Jean Baptiste – a black man – founder of the city of Chicago in 1772 #

Dennis Banks Dennis Banks (April 12, 1937, in Ojibwe – October 29, 2017) was a Native American activist, teacher, and author. He was a longtime leader of the American Indian Movement, which he co-founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1968 to represent urb ...

– a red man – one of the organizers of the

American Indian movement The American Indian Movement (AIM) is a Native American grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police br ...

Luis de Santángel Luis de Santángel (died 1498) was a third generation '' converso'' in Spain during the late fifteenth century. Santángel worked as ''escribano de ración'' to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I of Spain which left him in charge of the Royal ...

– a white man – Jewish financier who raised funds to sponsor Christopher Columbus' voyage to America #

Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, u ...

– a black woman – woman who led countless slaves to freedom on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

# T. J. Marshall – a black man – inventor of the fire extinguisher (barely heard during fadeout)

References

{{authority control 1976 songs Stevie Wonder songs Songs written by Stevie Wonder Songs against racism and xenophobia Songs about black people Benjamin Banneker Funk rock songs Songs written by Imhotep Gary Byrd Song recordings produced by Stevie Wonder