Simone wrote this song in 1963 after four Black children were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL — a horrendous act akin to convicted murderer Dylann Roof unrepentantly killing nine people at a predominantly Black church in Charleston, SC, in 2015. Nearly 60 years after Simone penned and performed "Mississippi Godd*m," her words still resonate with the anxieties that Black Americans feel every day.
- "Hound dogs on my trail / School children sitting in jail / Black cat cross my path / I think every day's gonna be my last / Lord have mercy on this land of mine / We all gonna get it in due time."
- "Picket lines, school boycotts / They try to say it's a communist plot / All I want is equality / For my sister, my brother, my people, and me / Yes, you lied to me all these years / You told me to wash and clean my ears / And talk real fine just like a lady / And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie / Oh but this whole country is full of lies / You're all gonna die and die like flies."
