In 1960, Jessie Hill’s “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” sold over 800,000 singles, topped the charts and has subsequently been covered over 100 times. Today, the song’s creator lies under a plywood grave marker in Holt Cemetery, a space reserved for the indigent citizens of New Orleans.

Because of the impact of the timeless “Ooh Poo Pah Doo” (the song has been covered by other artists well over 100 times) Jessie “Poops” Hill has unfairly...