Yes, they are blacks. I had one of these I salvaged when I was working in telecom. I harvested the caps and switches, and tossed the keyboard. Now that there are converters for WYSE boards, it's possible to save some from the trash bin, but for this particular one, that may not be possible. It is designed to attached to a console terminal on a phone system, so I don't know if the controller is the same as a WY-50 or WY-60 or whatever.