Nina Simone was a renowned American singer and civil rights activist born in 1933 in North Carolina. She was a classically trained pianist from a young age but adopted the stage name Nina Simone to play jazz and blues in Atlantic City nightclubs in the 1950s. Simone became involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s, writing protest songs like "Mississippi Goddam" that expressed anger over racism and inequality. Due to growing bitterness over racism in America, she left the United States in the 1970s but returned in 1985 to record and perform, focusing more on popular appeal than political views. Nina Simone died in 2003 in France where she had lived for many years.