Who is the executive producer of Mississippi Goddam?
Kevin Sullivan is Reveal’s executive producer. In 2018, he launched an initiative to develop serial projects at Reveal, which resulted in 2020’s award-winning American Rehab and now Mississippi Goddam.
Why did Nina Simone write ‘Mississippi Goddam’?
In that way, the artist can assure themselves of being heard. Nina Simone checked off all of these boxes when she wrote “Mississippi Goddam,” as scathing an indictment of black-white inequality that has ever been penned.
What is the name of Simone’s “Mississippi Damn”?
At the start of the performance when Simone announces, “The name of this tune is Mississippi Goddam, and I mean every word of it,” the crowd titters and laughs. In the middle of the recording when she addresses the crowd again with, “Bet you thought I was kidding didn’t you?”
The Promise
Billey Joe Johnson’s family has lived with suspicion and doubt since authorities first told them he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a traffic stop with a White sheriff’s deputy. They never believed law enforcement thoroughly investigated what happened.
The AFTERMATH
On the morning of Billey Joe Johnson’s death, crime scene tape separates the Johnsons from their son’s body. Their shaky faith in the criminal justice system buckles as authorities fail to follow up on inconsistencies in the official story.
The Autopsy
The Missisissippi medical examiner’s office is a “mess” when Billey Joe Johnson dies. There’s no state medical examiner, and Mississippi outsources Johnson’s autopsy to a group from Tennessee. The pathologist who conducts his autopsy comes to one conclusion; the U.S. Department of Justice comes to another.
The Investigator
Special Agent Joel Wallace, a Black detective with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, works with the George County district attorney’s office questioning witnesses and reviewing evidence. When he finds out what Reveal has uncovered, he begins to wonder whether the case should be reopened.
Star Crossed
Billey Joe Johnson was a Black boy dating a White girl. And that made the story behind his death even more complicated.
The shooting of Billey Joe Johnson
The Sun Herald first reported on how the running back died of a gunshot wound to the head in the moments after a white George County deputy stopped him for allegedly running a stop sign and traffic light near Mississippi 26.
Conflicting autopsy findings
So far, the podcast has uncovered troubling questions about how the investigation was handled and how the results of an autopsy on Johnson differed between the official one conducted by the Tennessee medical examiner, Dr. Adele Lewis, and another conducted by the Division of Pathology within the Department of Justice.
