I was inspired to create this portrait after hearing Kim Nalley’s beautiful and moving rendition of Mississippi Goddamn during her performance of the Nina Simone songbook at the Fillmore Fair, San Francisco, in 2005. Kim told the story of how the (mostly white) audience at Carnegie Hall reacted as Simone sung Mississippi Goddamn. Simone started out playful and ended with a scathing attack on racism and appeal for immediate action in securing civil rights for African Americans.

The “Mississippi Goddamn” lyrics include “Alabama got me so sad”, referring to the terrible murder of four young girls in the bombing by white supremicists of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15th, 1963. Those four girls are represented in this portrait on the left hand side of the painting.

The lyrics also include “and everybody knows about Mississippi goddamn”. At the time this song was first performed there had been a series of brutal murders of civil rights workers, including the murder of Medgar Evers on June 12, 1963. Evers is depicted in this portrait in the upper right corner.

Other imagery in this painting includes photographs taken by Steven Somerstein at the Selma Civil Rights March on March 25th, 1965, depicting both black onlookers and white hecklers.

This painting was displayed at Kim Nalley's Jazz at Pearls jazz club (below) in San Francisco February 22nd - 25th during her CD release concert and Nina Simone songbook performances.