"Mississppi GODDAM"

“MISSISSPPI GODDAM”

            Eunice Kathleen Waymon better know as Nina Simone was born on February 21, 1933 in Tyron, North Carolina. She was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rights activist. During the time of the civil rights movement, many artists throughout the country from Bob Dylan to Nina Simone wrote many songs to express their feelings towards the civil rights movement.

             “Mississippi GODDAM” was the first song out of

many that Nina Simone openly addresses the racial inequality that was going on in the United States. The song was written and performed by Nina Simone and was debuted on her album Nina Simone in Concert, which was performed in Carnegie Hall in 1964. “Mississippi GODDAM” was her own personal reaction of the murder of Medgar Evers and the killing of four black children in Birmingham, Alabama. The song demonstrates its political focus early on with its refrain “Alabama’s got me so upset, Tennessee’s made me lost my rest, and everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam”. In the song she rails on the common argument at the time that civil rights activists and African Americans should “go slow” and make changes in the United States incrementally: “Keep on sayin’ “go slow” … to do things gradually would bring more tragedy. Why don’t you see it? Why don’t you feel it? I don’t know, I don’t know. You don’t have to live next to me, just give me my equality!” Nina Simone performed the song in front of 40,000 people at the end of one of the Selma to Montgomery marches when she and other black activists, including Sammy Davis Jr., James Baldwin and Harry Belafonte crossed police lines.

             “Mississippi GODDAM” has a lot of sentimental reasoning’s behind it, has I read through the lyrics and tried to envision Nina Simone writing and performing a powerful song like this; I wonder what was going through her mind? Was she really sick and tired of all the violence and the abuse against African Americans? Even though, I wasn’t fortunate enough to meet Nina Simone personally and ask her any of these questions, throughout my research has the semester progresses, I will learn more about the life of Nina Simone through her music, quotes, interviews and her auto-biography “I put a spell on you”. Nina Simone and her music may be a possible project; I will enjoy working on for my final research assignment.

            My personal reflection of “Mississippi GODDAM” was very emotional. Being an African American, it really hurts me to see what my people had to go through in order for me to be where I’m at today. Fortunately, I never had to witness any racial inequality or racial segregation throughout my life time. It really breaks my heart about the four little black girls who were all under the age of fifteen that were killed at

16^th street

Baptist church that was raided by the Klu Klux Klan. The civil rights movement was about 5 decades ago and many of the activists aren’t alive today to witness the great victory of their hard work and dedication by having the first black president Barack Obama in office.

Resources:

Ø      Wikipedia – Mississippi Goddam-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississppi_Goddam

Ø      Wikipedia- Nina_Simone-

http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Nina­_Simone

Nina Simone

1933-2003