Simone’s performed “Mississippi Goddam” on The Steve Allen Show on September 10, 1964. First Amendment scholar Ronald Collins has pointed out that Allen, the “famed host of a nationally syndicated TV variety program… was one of the few who then dared to provide a forum for those with dissident views.” Therefore, when Nina Simone “joined Allen at the desk before song, he told her he wanted her to sing ‘Mississippi Goddam’ because he knew it would provoke a lively discussion about censorship.”