 In 1964 , Simone changed record distributors from the American Colpix to the Dutch Philips , which also meant a change in the contents of her recordings . She had always included songs in her repertoire that drew upon her African @-@ American origins ( such as " Brown Baby " by Oscar Brown and " <unk> " by Michael <unk> in her album Nina at the Village Gate in 1962 ) . On her debut album for Philips , Nina Simone in Concert ( live recording , 1964 ) , for the first time she openly addressed the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States with the song " Mississippi <unk> " , her response to the June 12 , 1963 , murder of <unk> Evers and the September 15 , 1963 , bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham , Alabama , that killed four young black girls and partially blinded a fifth girl who survived . She remarked that the title and the song itself was , " like throwing 10 bullets back at them " , becoming one of many other protest songs written by Simone . The song was released as a single , and it was boycotted in certain southern states . Specifically , promotional copies were smashed by a Carolina radio station and returned to Simone 's record label . " Old Jim Crow " , on the same album , addressed the Jim Crow laws . 
