How does one person even begin to make a change in the world who seemed to have no voice at all before? Well, Nina sure found her way! Through music, specifically her song "Mississippi Goddam", she was able to express herself as well as other African American's feelings towards cruelty towards themselves at the time. The song was made in 1963 and was composed of many repetitive terms. In the song she boldly repeats the phrase of "go slow" numerous times, which can be referred back to the civil rights movement at the time. She was hoping that this phrase would entail the movement to happen slowly. With this being said, her career took a large hit in the civil rights movement, making her career suffer.
Throughout this song, many emotion-ridden words and phrases are used such as "sitting in jail", "I've even stopped believing in prayer", and "just give me my equality". As you can tell, these statements are very hurtful, and you can tell the emotions going through her head as she is singing the song. She does not feel as though she has belonging in the world due to the actions portrayed towards her. This song is almost like a cry for change and improvement towards the African American race. Just from the words I mentioned, she received a great amount of backlash from it. What stood out to me most was when she sang "I think every day's gonna be my last." To me, no one should ever have to deal with anything like this. We all live in America and should all be free from the constant struggles the generation faced in the 1960s. Living in fear 24/7 is awful and I do not believe should be how someone should live.
I agree with what you said about no one should need to feel like everyday will be their last. That line stood out to me, too because it shoes how dangerous times were back then. Nina's music was especially powerful and definitely helped the cause.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that Nina Simone took action in speaking her mind, bottling up the emotions having to do with the injustices she and many others faced everyday doesn't make progress. Even though making her feelings known hurt her career, at least she added to the progression of the Civil Rights Movement with a brave and passionate message that I'm sure many people would be proud of her for presenting.
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