Not too long after the Birmingham Church bombings claimed the lives of four little Black girls in 1963, Nina Simone found herself ready to go to war. And anybody who was in her way could get it.
At first, I tried to make myself a gun. I gathered some materials. "I was going to take one of them out, and I didn't care who it was," she later said. Simone wasn't playing at all. But then something snapped.
Her husband reminded her of her true power. "Nina, you can't kill anyone. You are a musician. Do what you do.” This inspired her to use the weapon she knew best to do what had to be done.
"When I sat down, the whole song happened. I never stopped writing until the thing was finished," she explained about her famous protest song, Mississippi Goddam. With anti-Black people and systems constantly surrounding us, we’ve all felt like Nina Simone.
Our rage has always been valid, sacred, and righteous. This story reminds us that we can do incredible things for our people, just like Nina did. Let our rage be the fuel that powers the change we want to see in our community's future.