Nina Simone

Born February 21st, 1933 in North Carolina

Grew up in a poor familyGave her first recital at 12

Faced discriminationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=RvByxvEd8qAGiven a chance to study at Julliard but

ran out of money and had to quit

Early Life

President Kennedy Shot and killed in TX

Lee Harvey Oswald killed and shot by Jack Ruby

MLK gives I have a Dream speech

Medgar Evers killed by the Klu Klux Klan

16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (white supremacist terrorism)

1963-a year to inspire rage

Although classically trained she played gospel, pop, folk and jazz

Wrote Mississippi Goddam in the same year MLK gave his famous speech in response to the assassination of Medgar Evers and other famous songs after MLK died.

Civil Rights Singing

Written in response to death of Medgar Evers (to KKK) and to the death of four school girls due to a bomb

Hides message in an upbeat tune but those words are meant to be screamed not sung.

It quickly became a civil rights activist anthem and was banned in several Southern states

“You don’t have to live next to me”=>NIMBYism

Mississippi Goddam