The question "does either Black or White have a certain win from the initial position, given perfect play by both sides" was first addressed by Wilhelm Steinitz in his 1896 "Theory of Perfect Play" (Chapter 6 of <A HREF="http://www.archive.org/details/modernchessinstr00steirich">Modern Chess Instructor</A>). He concluded that "by proper play on both sides the legitimate issue of a game ought to be a draw".

You can find a quite detailed overview of the literature since Steinitz in <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-move_advantage_in_chess">Wikipedia</A>. The advantages of Black over White seem to be largely psychological ("underdog").