Nina Simone: An American Icon

    I have to be completely honest when i say, before class last week, I did not think much of Nina Simone. In fact all I really knew about her beforehand was that she was some soul singer from the 60’s. However, after what we learned about her, I now see her in a whole new light.

    Nina Simone stepped out of the box and did something that Most artists of color would never do in this time period. She spoke up. After that tragic church fire that killed those little girls, Nina was fed up with the way the black community was being treated, so she stepped up and wrote the song that would change her career forever, “Mississippi Goddamn.”

    Mississippi Goddamn Highlighted all of Nina’s Deepest Frustrations.

“The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam

And I mean every word of it”

[Verse 1]

Alabama's gotten me so upset

Tennessee made me lose my rest

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Can't you see it

Can't you feel it

It's all in the air

I can't stand the pressure much longer

Somebody say a prayer

    This first first is setting the tone of her aggression. All the states/ the people in it have failed her and she is upset.  The anger  and blatant disrespect is swelling within her.

[Verse 2]

Hound dogs on my trail

School children sitting in jail

Black cat cross my path

I think every day's gonna be my last

Lord have mercy on this land of mine

We all gonna get it in due time

I don't belong here

I don't belong there

I've even stopped believing in prayer

Don't tell me, I'll tell you

Me and my people just about due

I've been there so I know

They keep on saying "Go slow!"

    The black community  is being treated like animals. Children cant even be children, it seems like they all have the worst luck humanly possible. People are dying so often you never know which day will be your last. But alas, everytime they want to speak up about it, all anyone ever tells them is to relax and “something will happen”, but we all know that means nothing.

[Refrain]

But that's just the trouble

"do it slow"

Washing the windows

"do it slow"

Picking the cotton

"do it slow"

You're just plain rotten

"do it slow"

You're too damn lazy

"do it slow"

The thinking crazy

"do it slow"

Where am I going

What am I doing

I don't know

I don't know

    This is reproving her point that, people think so little of the Black community, and the oppressive power just keep sugar coating it by telling them to “relax”

[Verse 3]

Picket lines, school boycotts

They try to say it's a communist plot

All I want is equality

For my sister, my brother, my people, and me

Yes, you lied to me all these years

You told me to wash and clean my ears

And talk real fine just like a lady

And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie

Oh but this whole country is full of lies

You're all gonna die and die like flies

I don't trust you anymore

You keep on saying "Go slow!"

"Go slow!"

    The community has been standing up and saying something about their frustrations, all they really want is for the powers to treat them properly. The oppressive powers however, try and shut them down by just labeling them as troublemakers or communists and hide the truth behind mounds of lies and eventually that is going to catch up to them.

[Chorus]

You don't have to live next to me

Just give me my equality

Everybody knows about Mississippi

Everybody knows about Alabama

Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

Nina is simply stating that, her community doesn't have to be best friends with their community, but at least give them some damn respect.

Nina Simone was an all together icon for the musical part of the Civil Rights Movement, and even though her career suffered for her actions, she did it in the name of justice.

   

Work Cited:

https://genius.com/Nina-simone-mississippi-goddam-lyrics