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The Extraordinary Life of Nina Simone was Tragic and Empowering

Tim Flight September 16, 2019 26 min

Nina Simone - Jazz — Nina Simone in October 1969. Consequence of Sound

**20. Her 1964 anti-racism anthem, Mississippi Goddam, was extremely controversial**

Medgar Evans, pictured here in 1958, whose assassination in 1963 inspired ‘Mississippi Goddam’. Biography

Nina’s social conscience, developed during her youth in the Jim Crow south, exploded into action in 1964. That year she wrote Mississippi Goddam in response to the murder of Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers in the state, and the bombing of 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. ‘All I want is equality/ for my sister my brother my people and me’, Nina raged in the song. Mississippi Goddam was very popular at her concerts but was immediately banned in several Southern states, and radio stations nationwide returned promotional copies they’d been sent broken in half.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk

The Extraordinary Life of Nina Simone was Tragic and Empowering

**20. Her 1964 anti-racism anthem, Mississippi Goddam, was extremely controversial**

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