Anybody know CSS?

[angylinni]

I'm so frustrated I could scream! I'm trying to make one of the pages of my website have a black background in the container div, but for some reason, something is overriding the .container style.

This is the css for the rest of the pages:

body {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
color: #000;
background-image: url(images/pagebackgroundwtblktxt.png);
background-repeat: repeat;
font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
font-size: 100%;
line-height: 1.4;
background-color: #951D1F;
}
.container {
width: 80%;
max-width: 1260px;
min-width: 780px;
background: #FFF;
margin: 0 auto;
border: medium solid #000;
}

The background is set to black, but it shows up white, I'm not exactly sure why?

the page I'm trying to change is located here: anthologies
and the index page is homepage

I've tried adding in the body color and background image to the html, which works, but the body and container still remain white inside.

My second problem involves the .sidebar div. I have it set to 20% width, and the height is auto which makes it run as long as the content in it, but I want the color to continue down the end of the page to the footer that floats at the bottom. I've tried changing the height to 100% which works on the pages that have little content, but the antho page is long and I have a feeling some of the other pages will get long as well and it just looks stupid ending halfway down the page.

CSS Code:

.sidebar1 {
float: left;
width: 20%;
padding-bottom: 10px;
font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif;
background-color: #981A1D;
color: #FFF;
height: 100%;
}

Any help would be gratefully appreciated!