Overriding the default menu text color in the nice-menus .css template file?

I'm trying to override the default text color for my menu. I have created a custom .css file for nice-menus based off of the template provided with the module. I have tried editing both of these fields but it isn't changing the color:

ul.nice-menu,
ul.nice-menu ul {
  list-style: none;
  padding: 0;
  margin: 0;
  color: #fff
  border-top: none;
}

ul.nice-menu li {
  border: none;
  border-top: 0;
  color: #fff;
  float: left;
background-image: url(menu_button_1.png);
background-position: 0;
  margin: 0;
  padding-left: 0;
}

However, When I edit the color for the hover effect it does change the text cover when the mouse is rolled over the menu item, such as:

ul.nice-menu li a:hover {
  border: none;
  border-top: 0;
  float: left;
  margin: 0;
  padding-left: 0;
    color: #000;
    background-image: url(menu_button_2.png);
	background-position: 0;
	height: 16px;	
width: 124px;

  }