Listen a note, in this episode there will be strong language.

Welcome to Legacy and the second episode of our series on Nina Simone, the story of an extraordinary artist and civil rights icon.

When we left you at the end of the first episode, Nina had married an abusive husband,

Andy Stroud, who became her manager.

She'd fulfilled a lifelong dream of playing at the iconic Carnegie Hall in New York,

but after the jailing of Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham, Alabama,

she decides to take her career in a new direction.

It takes another two years before Martin Luther King and Nina Simone actually meet face-to-face.

And it happens on the 24th of March, 1965, the third evening of the Selma marches,

protesting the blocking of Black Americans' right to vote by the systematic racist structure of the Jim Crow South.

A rally is held in Alabama, the Stars for Freedom Rally, organized by Harry Balafonte.

Among those performing, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, and, of course, Nina Simone.

As always, she's accompanied by her guitarist and close friend Al Shackman. Nina's dedication to the civil rights movement is at this point very clear.

She doesn't, however, share all of Martin Luther King's beliefs.

March 24, 1965, late evening, Al Shackman is exhausted, having flown straight down from a gig in New York to Alabama.

As he and Nina are driven through the city of St Jude in Montgomery, Al notices the streets outside are lined with National Guard.

It's been a very unfriendly welcome.

Earlier, the governor filled the airport runway with garbage trucks to stop their plane

from landing.

They arrive at the venue, a muddy school playing field on the outskirts of town.

Stepping out of the car, Al uses his guitar case to shield himself from the heavy

rain as they trudged through mud towards a school bus being used as a makeshift backstage area.

...