The Allen School , also known as Allen High School , was a defunct private high school in Asheville, North Carolina for African-American students. Originally known as the Allen Industrial Training School , and later as Allen Home High School , it opened in 1887 and closed in 1974. Built on land donated by Mr. and Mrs. L. M. Pease and later named for Marriage Allen, an English Quaker philanthropist, who donated money for the construction of a dormitory building, the school was directed by the Woman’s Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church , later the United Methodist Church .
159-573: Nina Simone ( / ˈ n iː n ə s ɪ ˈ m oʊ n / NEE -nə sim- OHN ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon ; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, arranger, and civil rights activist . Her music spanned styles including classical , folk , gospel , blues , jazz , R&B , and pop . Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach , and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice. The sixth of eight children born into
318-587: A detective with the New York Police Department , in December 1961. In a few years he became her manager and the father of her daughter Lisa , but Simone later claimed that he abused her psychologically and physically. Simone said that Stroud treated her "like a work horse " in an interview with the BBC in 1999. In 1964, Simone changed record distributors from Colpix, an American company, to
477-539: A 14-year-old African American from Chicago, visited his relatives in Money, Mississippi , for the summer. He allegedly had an interaction with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in a small grocery store that violated the norms of Mississippi culture, and Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam brutally murdered young Emmett Till. They beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River . Three days later, Till's body
636-762: A French label, Studio Davout . During the 1980s, Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London, where she recorded the album Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging with her audiences sometimes, by recounting humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and by soliciting requests. By this time she stayed everywhere and nowhere. She lived in Liberia, Barbados and Switzerland and eventually ended up in Paris. There she regularly performed in
795-743: A North African." During a 1998 performance in Newark , she announced, "If you're going to come see me again, you've got to come to France, because I am not coming back." She suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône), on April 21, 2003, at the age of 70. Her Catholic funeral service at the local parish was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti LaBelle , poet Sonia Sanchez , actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee , and hundreds of others. Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. Her daughter Lisa Celeste Stroud
954-442: A Spell on You that the purpose of the song was to inspire Black women to define beauty and identity for themselves without the influence of societal impositions. Chardine Taylor-Stone has noted that, beyond the politics of beauty, the song also describes the stereotypical roles that many Black women have historically been restricted to: the mammy , the tragic mulatto , the sex worker , and the angry Black woman . Simone assembled
1113-473: A backlash for his involvement with white actress Kim Novak . Davis briefly married a black dancer in 1958 to protect himself from mob violence. In 1958, officers in Virginia entered the home of Mildred and Richard Loving and dragged them out of bed for living together as an interracial couple, on the basis that "any white person intermarry with a colored person"— or vice versa—each party "shall be guilty of
1272-549: A bus boycott was considered and rejected. But when Rosa Parks was arrested in December, Jo Ann Gibson Robinson of the Montgomery Women's Political Council put the bus boycott protest in motion. Late that night, she, John Cannon (chairman of the Business Department at Alabama State University ) and others mimeographed and distributed thousands of leaflets calling for a boycott. The eventual success of
1431-571: A charge the staff at Curtis have denied. Discouraged, she took private piano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff , a professor at Curtis, but never could re-apply. At the time the Curtis Institute did not accept students over 21. She took a job as a photographer's assistant, found work as an accompanist at Arlene Smith 's vocal studio, and taught piano from her home in Philadelphia. In order to fund her private lessons, Simone performed at
1590-634: A collection of songs that became standards in her repertoire. Some were songs that she wrote herself, while others were new arrangements of other standards, and others had been written especially for the singer. Her first hit song in America was her rendition of George Gershwin 's " I Loves You, Porgy " (1958). It peaked at number 18 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart. During that same period Simone recorded " My Baby Just Cares for Me ," which would become her biggest success years later, in 1987, after it
1749-473: A combined strategy of direct action , nonviolence , nonviolent resistance , and many events described as civil disobedience , giving rise to the civil rights movement of 1954 to 1968. A. Philip Randolph had planned a march on Washington, D.C., in 1941 to support demands for elimination of employment discrimination in the defense industry ; he called off the march when the Roosevelt administration met
SECTION 10
#17327978528901908-488: A felony" and face prison terms of five years. Invigorated by the victory of Brown and frustrated by the lack of immediate practical effect, private citizens increasingly rejected gradualist, legalistic approaches as the primary tool to bring about desegregation . They were faced with " massive resistance " in the South by proponents of racial segregation and voter suppression . In defiance, African-American activists adopted
2067-535: A jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue . She released her first and biggest hit single in the United States in 1959 with " I Loves You, Porgy " which peaked inside the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart . Simone also became known for her work in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s , and she later fled
2226-688: A lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow . A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba , then persuaded her to go to Liberia . When Simone relocated, she abandoned her daughter Lisa in Mount Vernon . Lisa eventually reunited with Simone in Liberia, but, according to Lisa, her mother was physically and mentally abusive. The abuse was so unbearable that Lisa became suicidal and she moved back to New York to live with her father. Simone recorded her last album for RCA, It Is Finished , in 1974, and did not make another record until 1978, when she
2385-507: A major European hit with the song " My Baby Just Cares for Me ". Recorded by her for the first time in 1958, the song was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in Europe, leading to a re-release of the recording. The song reached number 4 on the UK's NME singles chart, giving Simone a brief surge in popularity in the UK and elsewhere. In the spring of 1988, Simone moved to Nijmegen in
2544-578: A neighborhood a character or property or occupancy, members of any race or nationality, or any individual whose presence will be clearly detrimental to property values in a neighborhood." The result was the development of all-black ghettos in the North and West, where much housing was older, as well as South. The first anti-miscegenation law was passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 1691, criminalizing interracial marriage . In
2703-571: A network of chapters as the NAACP did. It offered training and leadership assistance for local efforts to fight segregation. The headquarters organization raised funds, mostly from Northern sources, to support such campaigns. It made nonviolence both its central tenet and its primary method of confronting racism. In 1959, Septima Clarke , Bernice Robinson, and Esau Jenkins , with the help of Myles Horton 's Highlander Folk School in Tennessee , began
2862-465: A plethora of aspects of life. Within employment, economic opportunities for blacks were routed to the lowest status and restrictive in potential mobility. Within the housing market, stronger discriminatory measures were used in correlation to the influx, resulting in a mix of "targeted violence, restrictive covenants , redlining and racial steering ". The Great Migration resulted in many African Americans becoming urbanized, and they began to realign from
3021-761: A poor family in North Carolina , Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist . With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia , where, despite a well received audition , she was denied admission, which she attributed to racism . In 2003, just days before her death,
3180-571: A separate state, though she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal. In 1967, Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor . She sang "Backlash Blues" written by her friend, Harlem Renaissance leader Langston Hughes , on her first RCA Victor album, Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967), she recorded Billy Taylor 's " I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free " and "Turning Point". The album 'Nuff Said! (1968) contained live recordings from
3339-762: A shoe store cashier at gunpoint to take back a pair of sandals she'd already worn; and another in which Simone demanded a royalty payment from Ian herself as an exchange for having recorded one of Ian's songs, and then ripped a pay telephone out of its wall when she was refused. Simone was the recipient of a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 for her interpretation of " I Loves You, Porgy ". On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C. , more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone. Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from Amherst College and Malcolm X College . She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. She
SECTION 20
#17327978528903498-438: A small jazz club called Aux Trois Mailletz for relatively small financial reward. The performances were sometimes brilliant and at other times Nina Simone gave up after fifteen minutes. Often she was too drunk to sing or play the piano properly. At other times she scolded the audience, so that manager Raymond Gonzalez, guitarist Al Schackman and Gerrit de Bruin, a Dutch friend of hers, decided to intervene. In 1987, Simone scored
3657-589: A speech in Charleston, Illinois in 1858, Abraham Lincoln stated, "I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people". By the late 1800s, 38 US states had anti-miscegenation statutes. By 1924, the ban on interracial marriage was still in force in 29 states. While interracial marriage had been legal in California since 1948, in 1957 actor Sammy Davis Jr. faced
3816-505: A watershed historical moment without Mamie finding the strength to make her private grief a public matter." The visceral response to his mother's decision to have an open-casket funeral mobilized the black community throughout the U.S. The murder and resulting trial ended up markedly impacting the views of several young black activists. Joyce Ladner referred to such activists as the "Emmett Till generation." One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on
3975-675: A younger audience. In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder. The following single, a rendition of the Bee Gees ' " To Love Somebody ", also reached the UK Top 10 in 1969. " The House of the Rising Sun " was featured on Nina Simone Sings the Blues in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song in 1961 and it was featured on Nina at the Village Gate (1962). Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her
4134-481: Is an actress and singer who took the stage name Simone, and who has appeared on Broadway in Aida . Simone's consciousness on the racial and social discourse was prompted by her friendship with the playwright Lorraine Hansberry . Simone stated that during her conversations with Hansberry "we never talked about men or clothes. It was always Marx, Lenin and revolution – real girls' talk." The influence of Hansberry planted
4293-495: Is an independent film written and directed by Jeff L. Lieberman , who initially consulted with Simone's daughter, Lisa before going the independent route and then worked closely with Simone's siblings, predominantly Sam Waymon. The film debuted in cinemas in October 2015, and has since played more than 100 theaters in 10 countries. Civil rights movement 1954–1959 1960–1963 1964–1968 The civil rights movement
4452-420: Is regarded as one of the most influential recording artists of 20th-century jazz, cabaret and R&B genres. According to Rickey Vincent , she was a pioneering musician whose career was characterized by "fits of outrage and improvisational genius". Pointing to her composition of " Mississippi Goddam ," Vincent said Simone broke the mold, having the courage as "an established black musical entertainer to break from
4611-425: Is still relevant today: "it didn't adhere to ephemeral trends, it isn't a relic of a bygone era; her vocal delivery and technical skills as a pianist still dazzle; and her emotional performances have a visceral impact." "She is loved or feared, adored or disliked," Maya Angelou wrote in 1970, "but few who have met her music or glimpsed her soul react with moderation." Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in
4770-579: The Asheville Citizen Times reports that more than one hundred students had enrolled, and by the end of the first school year, over two hundred students had started to attend classes. Just one year after being founded, in 1888, a high school curriculum was added. By 1892 the Allen School became a boarding school primarily for Black female students, although boys continued to attend until 1941. Known for its high academic standards,
4929-434: The 15th Amendment (1870) that gave black males the right to vote (only males could vote in the U.S. at the time). From 1865 to 1877, the United States underwent a turbulent Reconstruction era during which the federal government tried to establish free labor and the civil rights of freedmen in the South after the end of slavery. Many whites resisted the social changes, leading to the formation of insurgent movements such as
Nina Simone - Misplaced Pages Continue
5088-709: The American Civil War , eight serving presidents had owned slaves , almost four million black people remained enslaved in the South , generally only white men with property could vote, and the Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites . Following the Civil War, three constitutional amendments were passed, including the 13th Amendment (1865) that ended slavery; the 14th Amendment (1869) that gave black people citizenship, adding their total for Congressional apportionment ; and
5247-655: The American Political Science Review , nonviolent civil rights protests boosted vote shares for the Democratic party in presidential elections in nearby counties, but violent protests substantially boosted white support for Republicans in counties near to the violent protests. Allen School (Asheville, North Carolina) Serving children during the day and adults at night, the Allen School devoted its mission to teaching African American students to read and write. Within one month of opening,
5406-528: The Great Migration also faced barriers in employment and housing. Over the following century, various efforts were made by African Americans to secure their legal and civil rights, such as the civil rights movements of 1865–1896 and of 1896–1954 . The movement was characterized by nonviolent mass protests and civil disobedience following highly publicized events such as the lynching of Emmett Till in 1955. These included economic boycotts such as
5565-836: The Irish Music Hall of Fame , presented by Sinead O'Connor . In 2018, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by fellow R&B artist Mary J. Blige . In 2019, " Mississippi Goddam " was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Simone was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2021. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Simone at No. 21 on their list of
5724-803: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK), whose members attacked black and white Republicans in order to maintain white supremacy . In 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant , the U.S. Army, and U.S. Attorney General Amos T. Akerman , initiated a campaign to repress the KKK under the Enforcement Acts . Some states were reluctant to enforce the federal measures of the act. In addition, by the early 1870s, other white supremacist and insurgent paramilitary groups arose that violently opposed African-American legal equality and suffrage, intimidating and suppressing black voters, and assassinating Republican officeholders. However, if
5883-827: The March on Washington in 1963, moderates in the movement worked with the United States Congress to achieve the passage of several significant pieces of federal legislation that authorized oversight and enforcement of civil rights laws. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned all discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin, including in schools, employment, and public accommodations . The Voting Rights Act of 1965 restored and protected voting rights for minorities and authorized oversight of registration and elections in areas with historic under-representation of minority voters. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 forbade property owners from discriminating in
6042-759: The Montgomery bus boycott , " sit-ins " in Greensboro and Nashville , a series of protests during the Birmingham campaign , and a march from Selma to Montgomery . The movement was led by Martin Luther King Jr. , James Bevel , and others, and press coverage of police violence using fire hoses and dogs against students attempting to walk to City Hall to talk with the mayor during the Birmingham campaign increased its public support. Discrimination
6201-556: The Montreux Jazz Festival is available on video courtesy of Mercury Studios and is screened annually in New York City at an event called "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976" which is curated by Tom Blunt. Footage of Simone singing " Mississippi Goddam " for 40,000 marchers at the end of the Selma to Montgomery marches can be seen in the 1970 documentary King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis and
6360-616: The Netherlands . She bought an apartment next to the Belvoir Hotel with views of the Waalbrug and Ooijpolder, with the help of her friend Gerrit de Bruin, who lived with his family a few corners away and kept an eye on her. The idea was to bring Simone to Nijmegen to relax and get back on track. A daily caretaker, Jackie Hammond from London, was hired for her. She was known for her temper and outbursts of aggression. Unfortunately,
6519-655: The Tuskegee Institute , to dine at the White House , making him the first African American to attend an official dinner there. "The invitation was roundly criticized by southern politicians and newspapers." Washington persuaded the president to appoint more blacks to federal posts in the South and to try to boost African-American leadership in state Republican organizations. However, these actions were resisted by both white Democrats and white Republicans as an unwanted federal intrusion into state politics. During
Nina Simone - Misplaced Pages Continue
6678-717: The Westbury Music Fair of April 7, 1968, three days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She dedicated the performance to him and sang "Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)," a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor . In 1969, she performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park . The performance was recorded and is featured in Questlove 's 2021 documentary Summer of Soul . Simone and Weldon Irvine turned
6837-422: The screenplay and directed the 2016 film Nina , starring Zoe Saldana , who since openly apologized for taking the controversial title role. In 2015, two documentary features about Simone's life and music were released. The first, directed by Liz Garbus , What Happened, Miss Simone? was produced in cooperation with Simone's estate and her daughter, who also served as the film's executive producer. The film
6996-425: The 1950s and 1960s, the nonviolent protesting of the civil rights movement caused definite tension, which gained national attention. In order to prepare for protests physically and psychologically, demonstrators received training in nonviolence. According to former civil rights activist Bruce Hartford, there are two main components of nonviolence training. There is the philosophical method, which involves understanding
7155-492: The 1952 movie Casque d'Or . Knowing her mother would not approve of her playing "the Devil's music," she used her new stage name to remain undetected. Simone's mixture of jazz, blues , and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small but loyal fan base. In 1958, she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker , but quickly regretted their marriage. Playing in small clubs in
7314-427: The 1980s re-release of her version of the jazz standard " My Baby Just Cares for Me ") and never benefited financially from the album's sales. After the success of Little Girl Blue , Simone signed a contract with Colpix Records and recorded a multitude of studio and live albums . Colpix relinquished all creative control to her, including the choice of material that would be recorded, in exchange for her signing
7473-521: The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Simone's music has been featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games , including La Femme Nikita (1990), Point of No Return (1993), Shallow Grave (1994) , The Big Lebowski (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Disappearing Acts (2000), Six Feet Under (2001), The Dancer Upstairs (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Cellular (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Sex and
7632-551: The 2015 Liz Garbus documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? Plans for a Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005, to be based on Simone's autobiography I Put a Spell on You (1992) and to focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006; Simone's daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly , has since refuted the existence of a romantic relationship between Simone and Henderson on account of his homosexuality. Cynthia Mort (screenwriter of Will & Grace and Roseanne ), wrote
7791-593: The Chanel commercial after a legal battle. In 1991 Nina Simone exchanged Nijmegen for Amsterdam , where she lived for two years with friends and Hammond. In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in southern France ( Bouches-du-Rhône ). In the same year, her final album, A Single Woman , was released. She variously contended that she married or had a love affair with a Tunisian around this time, but that their relationship ended because, "His family didn't want him to move to France, and France didn't want him because he's
7950-583: The City (2008), The World Unseen (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), Home (2008), Watchmen (2009), The Saboteur (2009), Repo Men (2010), Beyond the Lights (2014), Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Nobody (2021), and A Quiet Place: Day One (2024). Frequently her music is used in remixes , commercials , and TV series including " Feeling Good ", which featured prominently in
8109-547: The Dutch Philips Records , which meant a change in the content of her recordings. She had always included songs in her repertoire that drew on her African-American heritage, such as "Brown Baby" by Oscar Brown and "Zungo" by Michael Olatunji on her album Nina at the Village Gate in 1962. On her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone in Concert (1964), for the first time she addressed racial inequality in
SECTION 50
#17327978528908268-583: The Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City , New Jersey , whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano, which increased her income to $ 90 a week. In 1954, she adopted the stage name "Nina Simone". "Nina", derived from niña , was a nickname given to her by a boyfriend named Chico, and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret , whom she had seen in
8427-707: The Montgomery Improvement Association, joined with other church leaders who had led similar boycott efforts, such as C. K. Steele of Tallahassee and T. J. Jemison of Baton Rouge, and other activists such as Fred Shuttlesworth , Ella Baker , A. Philip Randolph , Bayard Rustin and Stanley Levison , to form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The SCLC, with its headquarters in Atlanta , Georgia , did not attempt to create
8586-516: The Montgomery bus boycott to demand a bus system in which passengers would be treated equally. The organization was led by Jo Ann Robinson, a member of the Women's Political Council who had been waiting for the opportunity to boycott the bus system. Following Rosa Parks' arrest, Jo Ann Robinson mimeographed 52,500 leaflets calling for a boycott. They were distributed around the city and helped gather
8745-496: The NAACP and the national civil rights movement obtained federal court orders to integrate the prestigious Little Rock Central High School in September, 1957. The Nine faced intense harassment and threats of violence from white parents and students, as well as organized white supremacy groups. The enraged opposition emphasized miscegenation as the threat to white society. Arkansas Governor , Orval Faubus , claiming his only goal
8904-528: The Nine were teased and ridiculed every day. In the city compromise efforts all failed and political tensions continued to fester. A year later in September 1958 the Supreme Court ruled that all the city's high schools had to be integrated immediately. Governor Faubus and the legislature responded by immediately shutting down all the public high schools in the city for the entire 1958–1959 school year, despite
9063-528: The Quiet Comes "). The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from Common's 2007 album Finding Forever , and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on Lil Wayne 's 2008 album Tha Carter III . " See-Line Woman " was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his album 808s & Heartbreak . The 1965 rendition of " Strange Fruit ", originally recorded by Billie Holiday ,
9222-647: The RCNL, Howard led campaigns to expose brutality by the Mississippi state highway patrol and to encourage blacks to make deposits in the black-owned Tri-State Bank of Nashville which, in turn, gave loans to civil rights activists who were victims of a "credit squeeze" by the White Citizens' Councils . After Claudette Colvin was arrested for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in March 1955,
9381-462: The Republican to the Democratic Party, especially because of opportunities under the New Deal of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Substantially under pressure from African-American supporters who began the March on Washington Movement , President Roosevelt issued the first federal order banning discrimination and created the Fair Employment Practice Committee . After both World Wars, black veterans of
9540-466: The Season Four Promo of Six Feet Under (2004). Simone's "Take Care of Business" is the closing theme of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Simone's cover of Janis Ian 's " Stars " is played during the final moments of the season 3 finale of BoJack Horseman (2016), and "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" were included in the film Acrimony (2018). The documentary Nina Simone: La légende ( The Legend )
9699-430: The South." From 1910 to 1970, blacks sought better lives by migrating north and west out of the South. A total of nearly seven million blacks left the South in what was known as the Great Migration , most during and after World War II. So many people migrated that the demographics of some previously black-majority states changed to a white majority (in combination with other developments). The rapid influx of blacks altered
SECTION 60
#17327978528909858-685: The Street (1998, "Sins of the Father"), Nash Bridges (2000, "Jackpot"), Scrubs (2001, " My Own Personal Jesus "), Chuck (2010, "Chuck vs. the Honeymooners"), Boomtown (2003, "The Big Picture"), Person of Interest (2011, " Witness "), Shameless (2011, "Kidnap and Ransom"), Love/Hate (2011, "Episode 1"), Sherlock (2012, " The Reichenbach Fall "), The Blacklist (2013, " The Freelancer "), Vinyl (2016, "The Racket"), Lucifer (2017, "Favorite Son"), and The Umbrella Academy (2019, "Extra Ordinary"), and sampled by artists such as Talib Kweli (2003, " Get By "), Timbaland (2007, "Oh Timbaland"), and Flying Lotus (2012, " Until
10017-457: The United States and settled in France following the assassination of her friend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 . She lived and performed in Europe , Africa , and the Caribbean throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. In 1991, Simone published her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You (taking the title from her famous 1965 album ), and she continued to perform and attract audiences until her death. Rolling Stone has ranked Simone as one of
10176-419: The United States in the song " Mississippi Goddam ". This was her response to the June 12, 1963, murder of Medgar Evers and the September 15, 1963, bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, that killed four young black girls and partly blinded a fifth. She said that the song was "like throwing ten bullets back at them", becoming one of many other protest songs written by Simone. The song
10335-704: The Wind " on Wild is the Wind (1966). "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and her takes on " Sinnerman " ( Pastel Blues , 1965) and "Feeling Good" have remained popular in cover versions (most notably a version of the former song by The Animals ), sample usage, and their use on soundtracks for various movies, television series, and video games. "Sinnerman" has been featured in the films The Crimson Pirate (1952), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), High Crimes (2002), Cellular (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Golden Door (2006), Inland Empire (2006), Harriet (2019) and Licorice Pizza (2021), as well as in TV series such as Homicide: Life on
10494-411: The annual Hampton Negro Conference in Virginia, said that "...the lines along most of the avenues of wage-earning are more rigidly drawn in the North than in the South. There seems to be an apparent effort throughout the North, especially in the cities to debar the colored worker from all the avenues of higher remunerative labor, which makes it more difficult to improve his economic condition even than in
10653-676: The appointment of African American David Jones to the school board in 1953, convinced numerous white and black citizens that Greensboro was heading in a progressive direction. Integration in Greensboro occurred rather peacefully compared to the process in Southern states such as Alabama, Arkansas , and Virginia where " massive resistance " was practiced by top officials and throughout the states. In Virginia, some counties closed their public schools rather than integrate, and many white Christian private schools were founded to accommodate students who used to go to public schools. Even in Greensboro, much local resistance to desegregation continued, and in 1969,
10812-431: The attention of civil rights leaders. After the city rejected many of its suggested reforms, the NAACP, led by E. D. Nixon , pushed for full desegregation of public buses. With the support of most of Montgomery's 50,000 African Americans, the boycott lasted for 381 days, until the local ordinance segregating African Americans and whites on public buses was repealed. Ninety percent of African Americans in Montgomery partook in
10971-455: The audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element. Throughout most of her life and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and guitarist and musical director Al Schackman . She was known to pay close attention to the design and acoustics of each venue, tailoring her performances to individual venues. Rolling Stone once said that Simone could "channel every facet of lived experience." Simone
11130-412: The boycott made its spokesman Martin Luther King Jr. , a nationally known figure. It also inspired other bus boycotts, such as the successful Tallahassee, Florida boycott of 1956–57. This movement also sparked the 1956 Sugar Bowl riots in Atlanta which later became a major organizing center of the civil rights movement, with Martin Luther King Jr. In 1957, King and Ralph Abernathy , the leaders of
11289-469: The boycotts, which reduced bus revenue significantly, as they comprised the majority of the riders. This movement also sparked riots leading up to the 1956 Sugar Bowl . In November 1956, the United States Supreme Court upheld a district court ruling in the case of Browder v. Gayle and ordered Montgomery's buses desegregated, ending the boycott. Local leaders established the Montgomery Improvement Association to focus their efforts. Martin Luther King Jr.
11448-399: The bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Parks later informed Till's mother that her decision to stay in her seat was guided by the image she still vividly recalled of Till's brutalized remains. The glass topped casket that was used for Till's Chicago funeral was found in a cemetery garage in 2009. Till had been reburied in a different casket after being exhumed in 2005. Till's family decided to donate
11607-457: The case known as Brown II , the Court ordered segregation to be phased out over time, "with all deliberate speed". Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) did not overturn Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). Plessy v. Ferguson was segregation in transportation modes. Brown v. Board of Education dealt with segregation in education. Brown v. Board of Education did set in motion
11766-506: The city of Anniston, Alabama , two black ministers were brutally beaten for attempting to integrate the public library. Though there was resistance and violence, the integration of libraries was generally quicker than the integration of other public institutions. The situation for blacks outside the South was somewhat better (in most states they could vote and have their children educated, though they still faced discrimination in housing and jobs). In 1900 Reverend Matthew Anderson, speaking at
11925-775: The civil rights movement's peak in the mid-1960s, and still faced discrimination in jobs, housing, education and politics. A wave of riots and protests in Black communities in the 1960s, including in Los Angeles in 1965 , in Newark in 1967 , and in Chicago in 1968 following King's assassination lessened support from the White middle class. By the early 21st century, though " affirmative action " programs had expanded opportunities for Black and other minorities, Black income levels and life expectancy remained lower than that of Whites. Before
12084-622: The constitutionality of those state laws that required racial segregation in public facilities in its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson , legitimizing them through the " separate but equal " doctrine. Segregation, which began with slavery, continued with Jim Crow laws, with signs used to show blacks where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat. For those places that were racially mixed, non-whites had to wait until all white customers were served first. Elected in 1912, President Woodrow Wilson gave in to demands by Southern members of his cabinet and ordered segregation of workplaces throughout
12243-478: The contract with them. After the release of her live album Nina Simone at Town Hall , Simone became a favorite performer in Greenwich Village . By this time, Simone performed pop music only to make money to continue her classical music studies and was indifferent about having a recording contract. She kept this attitude toward the record industry for most of her career. Simone married Andrew Stroud,
12402-517: The court majority opinion that Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law; for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the Negro group. The lawyers from the NAACP had to gather plausible evidence in order to win the case of Brown vs. Board of Education . Their method of addressing
12561-719: The demand by issuing Executive Order 8802 , which barred racial discrimination and created an agency to oversee compliance with the order. The strategy of public education, legislative lobbying, and litigation that had typified the civil rights movement during the first half of the 20th century broadened after Brown to a strategy that emphasized " direct action ": boycotts, sit-ins , Freedom Rides , marches or walks, and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance, standing in line, and, at times, civil disobedience. Churches, local grassroots organizations, fraternal societies, and black-owned businesses mobilized volunteers to participate in broad-based actions. This
12720-462: The demographics of Northern and Western cities; happening at a period of expanded European, Hispanic, and Asian immigration, it added to social competition and tensions, with the new migrants and immigrants battling for a place in jobs and housing. Reflecting social tensions after World War I, as veterans struggled to return to the workforce and labor unions were organizing, the Red Summer of 1919
12879-439: The engagement. Her early experiences as a classical pianist had conditioned Simone to expect quiet attentive audiences, and her anger tended to flare up at nightclubs, lounges, or other locations where patrons were less attentive. Schackman described her live appearances as hit or miss, either reaching heights of hypnotic brilliance or on the other hand mechanically playing a few songs and then abruptly ending concerts early. Simone
13038-579: The entire process of developing and training the mental, physical and moral powers and capabilities of human beings". Risa Goluboff wrote that the NAACP's intention was to show the Courts that African American children were the victims of school segregation and their futures were at risk. The Court ruled that both Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which had established the "separate but equal" standard in general, and Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education (1899), which had applied that standard to schools,
13197-595: The fact that she had left behind her wedding ring, as an indication of her desire for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was in charge of Simone's income. When Simone returned to the United States, she learned that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for unpaid taxes (allegedly unpaid as a protest against her country's involvement with the Vietnam War ) and fled to Barbados to evade the authorities and prosecution. Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time and had
13356-402: The federal government found the city was not in compliance with the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Transition to a fully integrated school system did not begin until 1971. Many Northern cities also had de facto segregation policies, which resulted in a vast gulf in educational resources between black and white communities. In Harlem , New York, for example, neither a single new school was built since
13515-608: The federal government. The early 20th century is a period often referred to as the " nadir of American race relations ", when the number of lynchings was highest. While tensions and civil rights violations were most intense in the South, social discrimination affected African Americans in other regions as well. At the national level, the Southern bloc controlled important committees in Congress, defeated passage of federal laws against lynching, and exercised considerable power beyond
13674-521: The first Citizenship Schools in South Carolina 's Sea Islands . They taught literacy to enable blacks to pass voting tests. The program was an enormous success and tripled the number of black voters on Johns Island . SCLC took over the program and duplicated its results elsewhere. In the spring of 1951, black students in Virginia protested their unequal status in the state's segregated educational system. Students at Moton High School protested
13833-474: The front, and that the incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement . Simone's music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for her education. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist her continued education. With the help of this scholarship money, she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina . After her graduation, Simone spent
13992-557: The funeral in Jet is credited as a crucial moment in the civil rights era for displaying in vivid detail the violent racism that was being directed at black people in America. In a column for The Atlantic , Vann R. Newkirk wrote: "The trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of white supremacy ". The state of Mississippi tried two defendants, but they were speedily acquitted by an all-white jury . "Emmett's murder," historian Tim Tyson writes, "would never have become
14151-473: The future overturning of 'separate but equal'. On May 18, 1954, Greensboro, North Carolina , became the first city in the South to publicly announce that it would abide by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling. "It is unthinkable,' remarked School Board Superintendent Benjamin Smith, 'that we will try to [override] the laws of the United States." This positive reception for Brown, together with
14310-453: The greatest singers of all time on various lists. Simone was born on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina . Her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as a barber and dry-cleaner as well as an entertainer, and her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher. The sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at the age of three or four; the first song she learned
14469-457: The harm it did to all the students. The decision to integrate the school was a landmark event in the civil rights movement, and the students' bravery and determination in the face of violent opposition is remembered as a key moment in American history. The city and state were entangled in very expensive legal disputes for decades, while suffering a reputation for hatred and obstruction. During
14628-427: The individual person's attitude and mental response to crises and violence" (Civil Rights Movement Archive). Hartford and activists like him, who trained in tactical nonviolence, considered it necessary in order to ensure physical safety, instill discipline, teach demonstrators how to demonstrate, and form mutual confidence among demonstrators (Civil Rights Movement Archive). For many, the concept of nonviolent protest
14787-424: The institute awarded her an honorary degree . Early in her career, to make a living, Simone played piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City . She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment , which effectively launched her career as
14946-426: The issue of school segregation was to enumerate several arguments. One pertained to having exposure to interracial contact in a school environment. It was argued that interracial contact would, in turn, help prepare children to live with the pressures that society exerts in regard to race and thereby afford them a better chance of living in a democracy. In addition, another argument emphasized how "'education' comprehends
15105-460: The landmark Supreme Court case of Smith v. Allwright (1944), which prohibited white primaries , progress was made in increasing black political participation in the Rim South and Acadiana – although almost entirely in urban areas and a few rural localities where most blacks worked outside plantations. The status quo ante of excluding African Americans from the political system lasted in
15264-441: The last African Americans were elected to Congress from the South before disenfranchisement of blacks by states throughout the region, as described below. From 1890 to 1908, southern states passed new constitutions and laws to disenfranchise African Americans and many Poor Whites by creating barriers to voter registration; voting rolls were dramatically reduced as blacks and poor whites were forced out of electoral politics. After
15423-494: The late 1980s. She was known for her temper and outbursts of aggression. In 1985, Simone fired a gun at a record company executive, whom she accused of stealing royalties . Simone said she "tried to kill him" but "missed." In 1995, while living in France, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with an air gun after the boy's laughter disturbed her concentration and she perceived his response to her complaints as racial insults; she
15582-541: The leadership of Walter Reuther , the United Auto Workers donated $ 75,000 to help pay for the NAACP's efforts at the Supreme Court. On May 17, 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren ruled unanimously in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas , that mandating, or even permitting, public schools to be segregated by race was unconstitutional . Chief Justice Warren wrote in
15741-490: The lyrics of her song " Backlash Blues " were written by Hughes. Simone's social commentary was not limited to the civil rights movement ; the song " Four Women " exposed the Eurocentric appearance standards imposed on Black women in America, as it explored the internalized dilemma of beauty that is experienced between four Black women with skin tones ranging from light to dark. She explains in her autobiography I Put
15900-408: The majority of whom had recently been enslaved. For a short period of time, African-American men voted and held political office, but as time went on Blacks in the South were increasingly deprived of civil rights, often under racist Jim Crow laws , and were subjected to discrimination and sustained violence by White supremacists . African Americans who moved to the North to enhance their prospects in
16059-419: The method of nonviolence and why it is considered useful, and there is the tactical method, which ultimately teaches demonstrators "how to be a protestor—how to sit-in, how to picket, how to defend yourself against attack, giving training on how to remain cool when people are screaming racist insults into your face and pouring stuff on you and hitting you" (Civil Rights Movement Archive). The philosophical basis of
16218-473: The military pressed for full civil rights and often led activist movements. In 1948, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9981 , which ended segregation in the military . Housing segregation became a nationwide problem following the Great Migration of black people out of the South. Racial covenants were employed by many real estate developers to "protect" entire subdivisions , with
16377-601: The movement made its largest legislative and judicial gains during the 1960s. The movement's major nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience campaigns eventually secured new protections in federal law for the civil rights of all Americans. After the American Civil War and subsequent abolition of slavery in the southern states in 1865, the three Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution had granted emancipation and constitutional rights of citizenship to all African Americans,
16536-412: The norms of the industry and produce direct social commentary in her music during the early 1960s". Rolling Stone wrote that "her honey-coated, slightly adenoidal cry was one of the most affecting voices of the civil rights movement," while making note of her ability to "belt barroom blues, croon cabaret and explore jazz—sometimes all on a single record". In the opinion of AllMusic 's Mark Deming, she
16695-531: The number of whites in the South. Characteristics of the post-Reconstruction period: African Americans and other ethnic minorities rejected this regime. They resisted it in numerous ways and sought better opportunities through lawsuits, new organizations, political redress, and labor organizing (see the Civil rights movement (1896–1954) ). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
16854-470: The original casket to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American Culture and History, where it is now on display. In 2007, Bryant said that she had fabricated the most sensational part of her story in 1955. On December 1, 1955, nine months after a 15-year-old high school student, Claudette Colvin , refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and
17013-505: The overcrowded conditions and failing facility. Some local leaders of the NAACP had tried to persuade the students to back down from their protest against the Jim Crow laws of school segregation. When the students did not budge, the NAACP joined their battle against school segregation. The NAACP proceeded with five cases challenging the school systems; these were later combined under what is known today as Brown v. Board of Education . Under
17172-501: The practice of nonviolence in the American civil rights movement was largely inspired by Mahatma Gandhi 's "non-cooperation" policies during his involvement in the Indian independence movement , which were intended to gain attention so that the public would either "intervene in advance" or "provide public pressure in support of the action to be taken" (Erikson, 415). As Hartford explains it, philosophical nonviolence training aims to "shape
17331-445: The pressure of the lawsuit with a school boycott in 1959. During the boycott, some of the first freedom schools of the period were established. The city responded to the campaign by permitting more open transfers to high-quality, historically white schools. (New York's African-American community, and Northern desegregation activists generally, now found themselves contending with the problem of white flight , however.) Emmett Till ,
17490-446: The primary intent to keep " white " neighborhoods "white". Ninety percent of the housing projects built in the years following World War II were racially restricted by such covenants. Cities known for their widespread use of racial covenants include Chicago , Baltimore , Detroit , Milwaukee , Los Angeles , Seattle , and St. Louis . Said premises shall not be rented, leased, or conveyed to, or occupied by, any person other than of
17649-475: The remainder of the South, especially North Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama, until national civil rights legislation was passed in the mid-1960s to provide federal enforcement of constitutional voting rights. For more than sixty years, blacks in the South were essentially excluded from politics, unable to elect anyone to represent their interests in Congress or local government. Since they could not vote, they could not serve on local juries. During this period,
17808-633: The rental or sale of housing. African Americans re-entered politics in the South, and the Black Power movement emerged, which criticized leaders of the existing movement for their cooperative attitude and adherence to legalism and nonviolence . Black Power leaders, including within the Black Panther Party , demanded not only legal equality, but also economic self-sufficiency for the community. Support for Black Power came from African Americans who had seen little material improvement since
17967-457: The same category. In 2016 , Simone posthumously received a nomination for Best Music Film for the Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone? and in 2018 she received a nomination for Best Rap Song as a songwriter for Jay-Z 's "The Story of O.J." from his 4:44 album which contained a sample of " Four Women " by Simone. In 1999, Simone was given a lifetime achievement award by
18126-459: The same time as African Americans were being disenfranchised, white southerners imposed racial segregation by law. Violence against blacks increased, with numerous lynchings through the turn of the century. The system of de jure state-sanctioned racial discrimination and oppression that emerged from the post-Reconstruction South became known as the " Jim Crow " system. The United States Supreme Court made up almost entirely of Northerners, upheld
18285-520: The same year, she recorded George Gershwin 's " I Loves You, Porgy " (from Porgy and Bess ), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 20 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue followed in February 1959 on Bethlehem Records . Because she had sold her rights outright for $ 3,000, Simone lost more than $ 1 million in royalties (notably for
18444-483: The school became an accredited high school in 1924, and in 1940 was admitted as a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools , a distinction received by only two high schools for Black students in the 17 counties making up western North Carolina. By this time, the focus of the Allen School had shifted to college preparatory work and the grade school had been dropped. Thereafter,
18603-643: The school was known as an all-girls boarding high school, with about two-thirds of students coming from Western North Carolina and the rest from other states in the country, as well as outside the United States . The records for the Allen School are located in the Special Collections Research Center at Appalachian State University . The Allen School, which employed mostly white female teachers who were missionaries, emphasized “Christian ideals.” According to Jamie Butcher,
18762-553: The sciences, and foreign languages. As a result of its high academic standards and focus on college preparation, by the 1950s, approximately 50% of Allen School graduates attended college, including Wellesley and Vassar . And by 1972, two years before the school closed, more than 75% of the graduates went on to attend four-year colleges. The Allen School closed on June 3, 1974. By the fall of 1965, high schools in Western North Carolina were desegregating. As
18921-514: The seed for the provocative social commentary that became an expectation in Simone's repertoire . One of Nina's more hopeful activism anthems, " To Be Young, Gifted and Black ," was written with collaborator Weldon Irvine in the years following the playwright's passing, acquiring the title of one of Hansberry's unpublished plays. Simone's social circles included notable black activists such as James Baldwin , Stokely Carmichael and Langston Hughes :
19080-646: The states failed to implement the acts, the laws allowed the Federal Government to get involved. Many Republican governors were afraid of sending black militia troops to fight the Klan for fear of war. After the disputed election of 1876, which resulted in the end of Reconstruction and the withdrawal of federal troops, whites in the South regained political control of the region's state legislatures. They continued to intimidate and violently attack blacks before and during elections to suppress their voting, but
19239-498: The summer of 1950 at the Juilliard School as a student of Carl Friedberg , preparing for an audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia . Her application, however, was denied. Only three of 72 applicants were accepted that year, but as her family had relocated to Philadelphia in the expectation of her entry to Curtis, the blow to her aspirations was particularly heavy. For the rest of her life, she suspected that her application had been denied because of racial prejudice,
19398-482: The tantrums followed her to Nijmegen. Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by a friend of De Bruin, who prescribed Trilafon for her. Despite the illness, it was generally a happy time for Simone in Nijmegen, where she could lead a fairly anonymous life. Only a few recognized her; most Nijmegen people did not know who she was. Slowly but surely her life started to improve, and she was even able to make money from
19557-432: The time period considered to be the "African-American civil rights" era, the predominant use of protest was nonviolent, or peaceful. Often referred to as pacifism, the method of nonviolence is considered to be an attempt to impact society positively. Although acts of racial discrimination have occurred historically throughout the United States, perhaps the most violent regions have been in the former Confederate states. During
19716-715: The title "the High Priestess of Soul". She was a pianist, singer and performer, "separately, and simultaneously". As a composer and arranger, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz, and folk , and to numbers with European classical styling. Besides using Bach -style counterpoint , she called upon the particular virtuosity of the 19th-century Romantic piano repertoire— Chopin , Liszt , Rachmaninoff , and others. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis spoke highly of Simone, deeply impressed by her ability to play three-part counterpoint and incorporate it into pop songs and improvisation. Onstage, she incorporated monologues and dialogues with
19875-401: The track "(You'll) Go to Hell" from her thirteenth album Silk & Soul (1967). The award went to " Respect " by Aretha Franklin . Simone garnered a second nomination in the category in 1971, for her Black Gold album, when she again lost to Franklin for " Don't Play That Song (You Lied) ". Franklin would again win for her cover of Simone's " Young, Gifted and Black " two years later in
20034-399: The training of teachers, but also included classes related to domestic tasks, such as cooking and sewing. While the value of an industrial education for Black students was certainly debated, notably between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois , the Allen School did function as a normal school . But it also offered a variety of classes, including ones related to religion, business, music,
20193-546: The turn of the century, nor did a single nursery school exist – even as the Second Great Migration was causing overcrowding. Existing schools tended to be dilapidated and staffed with inexperienced teachers. Brown helped stimulate activism among New York City parents like Mae Mallory who, with the support of the NAACP, initiated a successful lawsuit against the city and state on Brown 's principles. Mallory and thousands of other parents bolstered
20352-414: The unanimous Supreme Court ruling, many states began to gradually integrate their schools, but some areas of the South resisted by closing public schools altogether. The integration of Southern public libraries followed demonstrations and protests that used techniques seen in other elements of the larger civil rights movement. This included sit-ins, beatings, and white resistance. For example, in 1963 in
20511-573: The unfinished play To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Lorraine Hansberry into a civil rights song of the same name . She credited her friend Hansberry with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and renditions of the song have been recorded by Aretha Franklin (on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black ) and Donny Hathaway . When reflecting on this period, she wrote in her autobiography, "I felt more alive then than I feel now because I
20670-512: The white or Caucasian race. While many whites defended their space with violence, intimidation, or legal tactics toward black people, many other whites migrated to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions, a process known as white flight . From the 1930s to the 1960s, the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB) issued guidelines that specified that a realtor "should never be instrumental in introducing to
20829-480: The white-dominated Democratic Party maintained political control of the South. With whites controlling all the seats representing the total population of the South, they had a powerful voting bloc in Congress. The Republican Party —the "party of Lincoln" and the party to which most blacks had belonged—shrank to insignificance except in remote Unionist areas of Appalachia and the Ozarks as black voter registration
20988-550: The “Religious centering of the school ebbed and flowed according to church policy and the religious climate of the time.” But the school retained a focus on “Christian ideals” and was connected to Berry Temple Methodist Church, also located in the Asheville. In addition to its dedication to Christian ideals, the Allen School had a threefold mission centered on the “industrial, mental, and physical.” Industrial refers to vocational training provided to students, which revolved around
21147-429: Was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the piano, she performed at her local church. Her concert debut, a classical recital , was given when she was 12. Simone later said that during this performance, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. She said that she refused to play until her parents were moved back to
21306-413: Was "one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic". Creed Taylor , who wrote the liner notes for Simone's 1978 Baltimore album, said the singer possessed a "magnificent intensity" that "turns everything—even the most simple, mundane phrase or lyric—into a radiant, poetic message". Jim Fusilli, music critic for The Wall Street Journal , writes that Simone's music
21465-724: Was a key moment in her path to Civil Rights activism. "Old Jim Crow", on the same album, addressed the Jim Crow laws . After "Mississippi Goddam," a civil rights message was the norm in Simone's recordings and became part of her concerts. As her political activism rose, the rate of release of her music slowed. Simone performed and spoke at civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches . Like Malcolm X , her neighbor in Mount Vernon, New York , she supported black nationalism and advocated violent revolution rather than Martin Luther King Jr. 's non-violent approach. She hoped that African Americans could use armed combat to form
21624-471: Was a more direct and potentially more rapid means of creating change than the traditional approach of mounting court challenges used by the NAACP and others. In 1952, the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL), led by T. R. M. Howard , a black surgeon, entrepreneur, and planter organized a successful boycott of gas stations in Mississippi that refused to provide restrooms for blacks. Through
21783-487: Was a social movement and campaign in the United States from 1954 to 1968 that aimed to abolish legalized racial segregation , discrimination , and disenfranchisement in the country, which was most commonly employed against African Americans . The movement had origins in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, and had modern roots in the 1940s. After years of direct actions and grassroots protests,
21942-404: Was a way of life, a culture. However, not everyone agreed with this notion. James Forman, former SNCC (and later Black Panther) member, and nonviolence trainer was among those who did not. In his autobiography, The Making of Black Revolutionaries , Forman revealed his perspective on the method of nonviolence as "strictly a tactic, not a way of life without limitations." Similarly, Bob Moses , who
22101-401: Was also an active member of SNCC , felt that the method of nonviolence was practical. When interviewed by author Robert Penn Warren, Moses said "There's no question that he ( Martin Luther King Jr. ) had a great deal of influence with the masses. But I don't think it's in the direction of love. It's in a practical direction … ." (Who Speaks for the Negro? Warren). According to a 2020 study in
22260-689: Was arrested, Rosa Parks did the same thing. Parks soon became the symbol of the resulting Montgomery bus boycott and received national publicity. She was later hailed as the "mother of the civil rights movement". Parks was secretary of the Montgomery NAACP chapter and had recently returned from a meeting at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee where nonviolence as a strategy was taught by Myles Horton and others. After Parks' arrest, African Americans gathered and organized
22419-417: Was discovered and retrieved from the river. After Emmett's mother, Mamie Till , came to identify the remains of her son, she decided she wanted to "let the people see what I have seen". Till's mother then had his body taken back to Chicago where she had it displayed in an open casket during the funeral services where many thousands of visitors arrived to show their respects. A later publication of an image at
22578-497: Was elected President of this organization. The lengthy protest attracted national attention for him and the city. His eloquent appeals to Christian brotherhood and American idealism created a positive impression on people both inside and outside the South. The Little Rock Nine were a group of nine students who attended segregated black high schools in Little Rock , the capital of the state of Arkansas. They each volunteered when
22737-408: Was featured in a 1986 Chanel No. 5 perfume commercial. A music video was also created by Aardman Studios . Well-known songs from her Philips albums include " Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood " on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964); "I Put a Spell on You", " Ne me quitte pas " (a rendition of a Jacques Brel song), and " Feeling Good " on I Put a Spell On You (1965); and " Lilac Wine " and " Wild Is
22896-613: Was founded in 1909. It fought to end race discrimination through litigation , education, and lobbying efforts. Its crowning achievement was its legal victory in the Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education (1954), when the Warren Court ruled that segregation of public schools in the US was unconstitutional and, by implication, overturned the " separate but equal " doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson of 1896. Following
23055-521: Was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. Two days before her death, Simone learned she would be awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute of Music , the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career. Simone has received four career Grammy Award nominations, two during her lifetime and two posthumously. In 1968 , she received her first nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for
23214-399: Was kept out of public view until 2004 when a biography, Break Down and Let It All Out , written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan (of her UK fan club), was published posthumously. Singer-songwriter Janis Ian , a one-time friend of Simone's, related in her own autobiography, Society's Child: My Autobiography , two instances to illustrate Simone's volatility: one incident in which she forced
23373-540: Was made in the 1990s by French filmmakers and based on her autobiography I Put a Spell on You . It features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with family, various interviews with Simone then living in the Netherlands, and while on a trip to her birthplace. A portion of footage from The Legend was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and entitled simply Nina . Her filmed 1976 performance at
23532-493: Was marked by hundreds of deaths and higher casualties across the U.S. as a result of white race riots against blacks that took place in more than three dozen cities. Urban problems such as crime and disease were blamed on the large influx of Southern blacks to cities in the north and west, based on stereotypes of rural southern African-Americans. Overall, blacks in Northern and Western cities experienced systemic discrimination in
23691-502: Was needed, and I could sing something to help my people". In an interview for Jet magazine, Simone stated that her controversial song "Mississippi Goddam" harmed her career. She claimed that the music industry punished her by boycotting her records. Hurt and disappointed, Simone left the US in September 1970, flying to Barbados and expecting her husband and manager Stroud to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and
23850-401: Was often credited for her ability to express an expansive emotional range in her music, from immeasurable rage to limitless joy. Simone was perceived as a sometimes difficult or unpredictable performer, occasionally hectoring the audience if she felt they were disrespectful. Schackman would try to calm Simone during these episodes, performing solo until she calmed offstage and returned to finish
24009-724: Was often supported by courts, including by the Supreme Court in its 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson , which upheld the doctrine of separate but equal . At the culmination of a legal strategy pursued by African Americans, in 1954 the Supreme Court struck down the underpinnings of laws that allowed racial discrimination as unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education . The Warren Court made further pro-civil rights rulings in cases such as Browder v. Gayle (1956) and Loving v. Virginia (1967), banning segregation in public schools and public transport, and striking down all state laws against interracial marriage . Following
24168-445: Was persuaded to go into the recording studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor . The result was the album Baltimore , which, while not a commercial success, was fairly well received critically and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output. Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates ' " Rich Girl ". Four years later, Simone recorded Fodder on My Wings on
24327-536: Was produced as a counterpoint to the unauthorized Cynthia Mort film ( Nina , 2016), and featured previously unreleased archival footage. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 and was distributed by Netflix on June 26, 2015. It was nominated on January 14, 2016, for a 2016 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature . The second documentary in 2015, The Amazing Nina Simone
24486-473: Was released as a single, and it was boycotted in some southern states. Promotional copies were smashed by a Carolina radio station and returned to Philips. She later recalled how "Mississippi Goddam" was her "first civil rights song" and that the song came to her "in a rush of fury, hatred and determination". The song challenged the belief that race relations could change gradually and called for more immediate developments: "me and my people are just about due." It
24645-529: Was sampled by Kanye West for " Blood on the Leaves " on his album Yeezus . Simone's years at RCA spawned many singles and album tracks that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968, it was " Ain't Got No, I Got Life ", a medley from the musical Hair from the album 'Nuff Said! (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 2 on the UK Singles Chart and introducing her to
24804-483: Was sentenced to eight months in jail, which was suspended pending a psychiatric evaluation and treatment . According to a biographer, Simone took medication from the mid-1960s onward, although this was supposedly only known to a small group of intimates. After her death, the medication was confirmed as the anti-psychotic Trilafon , which Simone's friends and caretakers sometimes surreptitiously mixed into her food when she refused to follow her treatment plan. This fact
24963-477: Was suppressed. The Republican lily-white movement also gained strength by excluding blacks. Until 1965, the " Solid South " was a one-party system under the white Democrats. Excepting the previously noted historic Unionist strongholds the Democratic Party nomination was tantamount to election for state and local office. In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington , president of
25122-500: Was to preserve the peace, deployed the Arkansas National Guard to prevent the black students from entering the school. Faubus defied federal court orders, whereupon President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened. He federalized the Arkansas National Guard and sent them home. Then he sent in an elite Army unit to escort the students to school and protect them between classes during the 1957–58 school year. In class, however,
25281-625: Was unconstitutional. The federal government filed a friend of the court brief in the case urging the justices to consider the effect that segregation had on America's image in the Cold War . Secretary of State Dean Acheson was quoted in the brief stating that "The United States is under constant attack in the foreign press, over the foreign radio, and in such international bodies as the United Nations because of various practices of discrimination in this country." The following year, in
#889110