Why do we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a national holiday?
Because it took a century after the Civil War was over to finally officially address the lack of equality that was promised to the descendents of Africa slaves. Dr. King was a leader of the people and even while living became a symbol of all that was wrong with racial relations in America. His death became a rallying point for social and political change.
The turbulent decade of the 60s saw racial tensions boiling over. NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers was shot by a Ku Klux Klan member. Another white supremacist killed four young black girls by bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
And a classically trained pianist named Nina Simone wrote and performed and recorded a song with a dirty word in the title and inflamatory lyrics.
Mississippi Goddam.
“Alabama’s gotten me so upset / Tennessee made me lose my rest / And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam…”
Was she cursing the state of Mississippi? Or was she just so exasperated with the events that she
couldn’t gather her thoughts?
Simone was a child prodigy whose early dreams were playing classical piano Carnegie Hall. Not only as a pinnacle of her career, but because that venue had never yet feathered a black female performer.
Her dream was accomplished, but instead of playing Bach, she played the song she wrote and the one that changed her career and her life.
“Nina Simone in Concert” recorded live at Carnegie Hall was released in 1964. “Mississippi Goddam” was issued as a single 45RPM record.
By the standards of the day, radio would not play the record because of the swearing of the title. It was officially banned in the South and totally ignored in most of the rest of the country. But beyond that, stations didn’t want to be broadcasting a controversial message. In fact, the promotional records sent to radio stations were returned … each vinyl disk broken in two.
“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!”
When Martin Luther King led tha march from Selma to Montgomery, several black activists were part of the gathering — Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr. and author James Baldwin were among those who crossed police lines to join the protest march. And at the end of the march, Nina Simone performed her song to the 10,000 present.
In the past few months, a documentary entitled “What Happened, Miss Simone?” was released — now available for rental and streaming on all major outlets. The title comes title from a Maya Angelou poem.
A promising mainstream career was sidetracked — or derailed — by an awakening interest in activism. The beautiful voice and piano of Nina Simone was not welcome in many places after that.
The artist left the USA in 1969, going to Liberia, Switzerland and France. She tried to make a living playing local bars and nightclubs for a few dollars, but was mostly broke and dispirited. She died in France in 2003.
So when we celebrate the birth and the accomplishments of Martin Luther KIng, we need to remember the others who fought alongside him and worked for that common dream
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
And yet … nearly 50 years later, it still seems not enough progress has been made.
(This post was originally on my Facebook page. Are you my friend on Facebook? You can find me here:)
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