Three Dog Night's version was the most popular recording, so far anyway.

It's a nice sentiment and it's the way things should be, unfortunately in my experience going to racially mixed schools in the seventies the ones that were heaviest African American were "dumbed-down". I didn't learn a thing for a year in Norfolk, VA and then had to study extremely hard to catch up when we were transferred by the military to another school that was less racially mixed. Ditto in Washington DC.
This isn't a slam (or racism). The kids I went to school with were just as thirsty for knowledge and as capable. It just seems that since nothing was expected of us, we performed at the lowest level possible.