NINA SIMONE BY ITZIAR

What was the Civil

Rights Movement?
The civil rights movement was a struggle by African Americans in the mid-1950s to
late 1960s to achieve Civil Rights equal to those of whites, including equal
opportunity in employment, housing, and education, as well as the right to vote, the
right of equal access to public facilities, and the right to be free of racial
discrimination. A major catalyst in the push for civil rights was in December 1955,
when NAACP activist Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus to a
white man.
Who was Martin Luther
King, Jr. and what did he
do?
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an African
American, Baptist minister, and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader
in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King advanced civil
rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the
nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. He was the son of early civil rights activist Martin
Luther King Sr.. King participated in and led marches for blacks' right to vote, desegregation,
labor rights, and other basic civil rights. King led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later
became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As
president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and
helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King helped
organize the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his famous "I Have a Dream"
speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Who was Nina Simone?
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American
singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of musical styles including
classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in Tryon, 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 she was denied admission despite a well-received audition, which she attributed to racial
discrimination. In 2003, just days before her death, the Institute awarded her an honorary degree. To make a living,
Simone started playing 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 a jazz vocalist. She went
on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She had a hit single in
the United States in 1958 with "I Loves You, Porgy". Her musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in
particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.
 Simone was one of the most outspoken and influential
How did she musicians throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Her
influence music spoke to the hundred of thousands of African
American men and women fighting for their rights
the Civil during the 1960s. She wrote “Mississippi Goddam” in
Rights response to the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers and
Movement? the Birmingham church bombing that killed four young
African American girls.
Why are we learning it today?
I think we are learning it today because the Civil Rights Movement was an
important thing in history. We are also learning it because lots of famouse singers
sang during the Civil Rights Movement.
THANK YOU FOR
WATCHING
BY ITZIAR