To Be Young, Gifted & Black

This song was written in memory of Simone's late friend Lorraine Hansberry, author of the play A Raisin in the Sun, who had died in 1965 aged 34. Simone was inspired to write the song by seeing the 1968 biographical play about Hansberry taken from Hansberry's writings which was also entitled "To Be Young, Gifted & Black".Simone introduced the song on August 17, 1969, to a crowd of 50,000 at the Harlem Cultural Festival, captured on the broadcast video tape, edited by Questlove and released in 2021 as part of the documentary film Summer of Soul.

The first video is from a recording session, live at Morehouse College in Atlanta, June 1969 (in which she talks about the song).
 The song is the title track of a 1972 Aretha Franklin album.To be young, gifted & black
Oh what a lovely precious dream
To be young, gifted & black
Open your heart to what I mean
In the whole world you know
There's a million boys and girls
Who are young, gifted & black
And that's a factC F C - / G - F G :// Am Dm / E Am / "You are young, gifted & black"
We must begin to tell our young
There's a world waiting for you
Yours is the quest that's just begun
When you feelin' really low
Yeah, there's a great truth that you should know
When you're young, gifted & black
Your soul's intactHow to be young, gifted & black?
Oh, how I long to know the truth
There are times when I look back
And I am haunted by my youth
Oh, but my joy of today
Is that we can all be proud to say
"To be young, gifted & black
Is where it's at"lyrics & music by Nina Simone & Weldon Irvine