Using Inkscape, How do I create a black backgroiund, and place white text/images on top? My white images do not show over a black background / layer.

Draw a rectangle for the background, set it's fill to black in the fill and stroke dialogue (Shift+Ctrl+F), type text on top, change it's color to white in the fill and stroke dialogue.
Your text might appear in black by default, just change it's colour to white. If you can't see it against the black background to select it set your view to outlines (View menu > Display mode > outlines (Ctrl+KP_5)).

You can also change your text default colour in the File menu > Inkscape preferences (Shift+Ctrl+P), or by double clicking the text tool.

Thank for your fast reponse Rico. Unfortunately, that is exactly what I was doing. I just printed it thinking it may have to do with the video rendering, but the printed copy is the same.
I have also tried putting the black rectangle on a lower level, but that does not fix it. There must be some sort of rendering issue. Is there a place to set how the program renders?

which version of inkscape are you using? (and what os?)

Windows Vista with Inkscape 0.46.

I will try to reboot. I do not think I am doing anything improperly right now.

very weird, maybe a bug.
Try a development version to see if it has the same behaviour, you can find them here for windows:
http://inkscape.modevia.com/win32/?M=D

I exited Inkscape completely (no instances were running.)
I then re-loaded the program (a single instance), reloaded my drawing, and tried again.
This time it worked.
I have been working for several minutes now without the issue.
If it happens again, is there any information that someone would be interested in?

i think it might be more a vista issue than inkscape.

If you can reproduce that bug, could you post about it in the bugs section? (before posting a bug, try a development version (link posted before) to check if it has been already fixed, and search through the bug section if somebody already posted about it.)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape

if the issue doesn't come back, close the question, thank you.

Will do.

With other drawing programs, I have had some issues going from one version to another. I cannot properly open the older files. How is Inkscape for that?

I never had any problem opening svg files created in Inkscape with different versions of it... and I'm changing version quite often as I'm compiling few times a month the last development version. Don't be afraid, you'll be pleased to see the improvements in the development version! (the little angel on the other shoulder could say "wait for 0.47 to be out some day, don't take any risk" hehe)

@RIco: I've had some problems with text and grouping with older files in the past, not recently though. Also, image location can be something of a gotcha as images get moved or are no longer accessible and Inkscape can't find them. I guess always embedding is the answer there.

Thanks pbhj,

This is what I was wondering about. An earlier version had the fonts and text correct ont he screen, but when I exported or printed, the text was in the wrong place, and the fonts were not correct. V0.46 seemed to fix this.

@pbhj... yes you're right, I forgot about image location... got a few white hair from that ;) !!

Having the same issue as Bill Moody did. I have drawn a black square background and it is the bottom layer. I have white text but it won't show on the black background. The text is the top layer, set as white.

 I have creating new text but it still won't work. It is also having the same issue with new objects. The existing objects (white) are showing up. Perhaps a bug?