Born in a small town in the South, Nina Simone revealed her talent for the piano at a very young age, playing gospel in churches and at social events, to the extent that she was labeled a child prodigy.

Growing up in a religious family, she faced the harsh reality of racial discrimination very early on, when at her first concert, at the age of ten, the organizers demanded that her parents leave their front row seats to make way for a white family.

That was her first political act: she insisted that her parents remain in their seats or she was not willing to perform.

Aiming to become the first black classical music performer in America, she saw her dreams shattered when she was denied a scholarship to the Curtis Institute because of her race.