Mahalia Jackson was an American gospel singer.
Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she
was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel".
Jackson became one of the most influential
gospel singers in the world and was heralded
internationally as a singer and civil rights
activist. She was described by entertainer
Harry Belafonte as "the single most powerful
black woman in the United States". She recorded
about 30 albums during her career, and her
45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.
"I sing God's music because it makes me feel
free", Jackson once said about her choice
of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With
the blues, when you finish, you still have
the blues."
Early life
Born as Mahala Jackson and nicknamed "Halie",
Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section
of the Carrollton neighborhood of Uptown New
Orleans, Louisiana. The three-room dwelling
on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and
a dog. This included Little Mahala; her brother
Roosevelt Hunter, whom they called Peter;
and her mother Charity Clark, who worked as
both a maid and a laundress. Several aunts
and cousins lived in the house as well. Aunt
Mahala was given the nickname "Duke" after
proving herself the undisputed "boss" of the
family. The extended family consisted of her
mother's siblings: Isabell, Mahala, Boston,
Porterfield, Hannah, Alice, Rhoda, Bessie,
their children, grandchildren, and patriarch
Rev. Paul Clark, a former slave. Mahalia's
father, John A. Jackson, Sr. was a stevedore
and a barber who later became a Baptist minister.
He fathered four other children besides Mahalia:
Wilmon and then Yvonne, Pearl, and Johnny,
Jr.. Her father's sister, Jeanette Jackson-Burnett,
and husband, Josie, were vaudeville entertainers.
At birth, Jackson suffered from genu varum,
or "bowed legs". The doctors wanted to perform
surgery by breaking her legs, but one of the
resident aunts opposed it. Jackson's mother
would rub her legs down with greasy dishwater.
The condition never stopped young Jackson
from performing her dance steps for the white
woman for whom her mother and Aunt Bell cleaned
house.
Jackson was five when her mother Charity died,
leaving her family to decide who would raise
Halie and her brother. Aunt Duke assumed this
responsibility, and the children were forced
to work from sunup to sundown. Aunt Duke would
always inspect the house using the "white
glove" method. If the house was not cleaned
properly, Jackson was beaten. If one of the
other relatives could not do their chores
or clean at their job, Jackson or one of her
cousins was expected to perform that particular
task. School was hardly an option. Jackson
loved to sing and church is where she loved
to sing the most. Her Aunt Bell told her one
day she would sing in front of royalty, a
prediction that would eventually come true.
Jackson began her singing career at the local
Mount Mariah Baptist Church. She was baptized
in the Mississippi River by Mt. Mariah's pastor,
the Rev. E.D. Lawrence, then went back to
the church to "receive the right hand of fellowship".
Career
1920s–1940s
In 1927, at the age of sixteen, Jackson moved
from the south to Chicago, Illinois, in the
midst of the Great Migration. After her first
Sunday church service, where she had given
an impromptu performance of her favorite song,
"Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet, Gabriel",
she was invited to join the Greater Salem
Baptist Church Choir. She began touring the
city's churches and surrounding areas with
the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the earliest
professional gospel groups. In 1929, Jackson
met the composer Thomas A. Dorsey, known as
the Father of Gospel Music. He gave her musical
advice, and in the mid-1930s they began a
14-year association of touring, with Jackson
singing Dorsey's songs in church programs
and at conventions. His "Take My Hand, Precious
Lord" became her signature song.
In 1936, Jackson married Isaac Lanes Grey
Hockenhull, a graduate of Fisk University
and Tuskegee Institute who was 10 years her
senior. She refused to sing secular music,
a pledge she would keep throughout her professional
life. She was frequently offered money to
do so and she divorced Isaac in 1941 because
of his unrelenting pressure on her to sing
secular music and his addiction to gambling
on racehorses.
In 1931, Jackson recorded "You Better Run,
Run, Run". Not much is known about this recording
and no publicly known copies exist. Biographer
Laurraine Goreau cites that it was also around
this time she added 'i' to her name, changing
it from Mahala to Mahalia, pronounced . At
age 25, Mahalia's second set of records was
recorded on May 21, 1937, under the Decca
Coral label, accompanied by Estelle Allen,
in order: "God's Gonna Separate The Wheat
From The Tares", "My Lord", "Keep Me Everyday"
and "God Shall Wipe All Tears Away". Financially,
these were not successful, and Decca let her
go.
In 1947, she signed up with the Apollo label,
and in 1948, recorded the William Herbert
Brewster song "Move On Up a Little Higher",
a recording so popular stores could not stock
enough copies to meet demand, selling an astonishing
eight million copies. The success of this
record rocketed Jackson to fame in the U.S.,
and soon after, in Europe. During this time
she toured as a concert artist, appearing
more frequently in concert halls and less
often in churches. As a consequence of this
change in her venues, her arrangements expanded
from piano and organ to orchestral accompaniments.
Other recordings received wide praise, including
"Let the Power of the Holy Ghost Fall on Me",
which won the French Academy's Grand Prix
du Disque; and "Silent Night, Holy Night",
which became one of the best-selling singles
in the history of Norway. When Jackson sang
"Silent Night" on Denmark's national radio,
more than twenty thousand requests for copies
poured in. Other recordings on the Apollo
label included "He Knows My Heart", "Amazing
Grace", "Tired", "I Can Put My Trust in Jesus",
"Walk with Me", "Let the Power of the Holy
Ghost Fall on Me", "Go Tell It on the Mountain",
"The Lord's Prayer", "How I Got Over", "His
Eye Is on the Sparrow", "I Believe", "Didn't
It Rain", "Hands of God" and "Nobody Knows".
1950s–1970s
In 1950, Jackson became the first gospel singer
to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall when
Joe Bostic produced the Negro Gospel and Religious
Music Festival. She started touring Europe
in 1952 and was hailed by critics as the "world's
greatest gospel singer". In Paris she was
called the Angel of Peace, and throughout
the continent she sang to capacity audiences.
The tour, however, had to be cut short due
to exhaustion. Jackson began a radio series
on CBS and signed to Columbia Records in 1954.
A writer for Down Beat music magazine stated
on November 17, 1954: "It is generally agreed
that the greatest spiritual singer now alive
is Mahalia Jackson." Her debut album for Columbia
was The World's Greatest Gospel Singer, recorded
in 1954, followed by a Christmas album called
Sweet Little Jesus Boy and Bless This House
in 1956.
With her mainstream success, Jackson was criticized
by some gospel purists who complained about
her hand-clapping and foot-stomping and about
her bringing "jazz into the church". Jackson
had many notable accomplishments during this
period, including her performance of many
songs in the 1958 film St. Louis Blues, singing
"Trouble of the World" in 1959's Imitation
of Life, and recording with Percy Faith. When
Mahalia Jackson recorded The Power and the
Glory with Faith, the orchestra arched their
bows to honor her in solemn recognition of
her great voice. She was the main attraction
in the first gospel music showcase at the
Newport Jazz Festival in 1957, which was organized
by Joe Bostic and recorded by the Voice of
America and performed again in 1958. She was
also present at the opening night of Chicago's
Old Town School of Folk Music in December
1957. In 1961, she sang at U.S. President
John F. Kennedy's inaugural ball. She recorded
her second Christmas album Silent Night in
1962. By this time, she had also become a
familiar face to British television viewers
as a result of short films of her performing
that were occasionally shown.
At the March on Washington in 1963, she sang
in front of 250,000 people "How I Got Over"
and "I Been 'Buked and I Been Scorned". Martin
Luther King, Jr. made his famous "I Have a
Dream" speech there. She also sang "Take My
Hand, Precious Lord" at his funeral after
he was assassinated in 1968. Jackson sang
to crowds at the 1964 New York World's Fair
and was accompanied by "wonderboy preacher"
Al Sharpton. She toured Europe again in 1961,
1963–1964, 1967, 1968 and 1969. In 1970,
she performed for Liberian President William
Tubman.
Jackson's last album was What The World Needs
Now. The next year, in 1970, Jackson and Louis
Armstrong performed "Just a Closer Walk with
Thee" and "When the Saints Go Marching In"
together. She ended her career in 1971 with
a concert in Germany, and when she returned
to the U.S., made one of her final television
appearances on The Flip Wilson Show. Jackson
devoted much of her time and energy to helping
others. She established the Mahalia Jackson
Scholarship Foundation for young people who
wanted to attend college. For her efforts
in helping international understanding, she
received the Silver Dove Award. Chicago remained
her home until the end. She opened a beauty
parlor and a florist shop with her earnings,
while also investing in real estate.
Civil rights movement
Jackson played an important role during the
civil rights movement. In August 1956, she
met Ralph Abernathy and Martin Luther King,
Jr. at the National Baptist Convention. A
few months later, both King and Abernathy
contacted her about coming to Montgomery,
Alabama, to sing at a rally to raise money
for the bus boycott. They also hoped she would
inspire the people who were getting discouraged
with the boycott.
Despite death threats, Mahalia Jackson agreed
to sing in Montgomery. Her concert was on
December 6, 1956. By then, the U.S. Supreme
Court had ruled in Browder v. Gayle that bus
segregation was unconstitutional. In Montgomery,
the ruling was not yet put into effect, so
the bus boycott continued. At this concert
she sang "I've Heard of a City called Heaven",
"Move On Up a Little Higher" and "Silent Night".
There was a good turnout at the concert and
they were happy with the amount of money raised.
However, when she returned to the Abernathy's
home, it had been bombed. The boycott finally
ended on December 21, 1956, when federal injunctions
were served, forcing Montgomery to comply
with the court ruling.
Although she was internationally known and
had moved up to the northern states, she still
encountered racial prejudice. One account
of this was when she tried to buy a house
in Chicago. Everywhere she went, the white
owners and real estate agents would turn her
away, claiming the house had already been
sold or they changed their minds about selling.
When she finally found a house, the neighbors
were not happy. Shots were fired at her windows
and she had to contact the police for protection.
White families started moving out and black
families started moving in. Everything remained
the same in her neighborhood except for the
skin color of the residents.
King and Abernathy continued to protest segregation.
In 1957, they founded the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference. The first major event
sponsored by the SCLC was the Prayer Pilgrimage
for Freedom in Washington, D.C., on May 17,
1957, the third anniversary of the Brown v.
Board of Education decision. From this point
forward, she appeared often with King, singing
before his speeches and for SCLC fundraisers.
In a 1962 SCLC press release, King wrote Jackson
had "appeared on numerous programs that helped
the struggle in the South, but now she has
indicated that she wants to be involved on
a regular basis". Jesse Jackson said when
King called on her, she never refused, traveling
with him to the deepest parts of the segregated
south.
At the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
in 1963, Jackson performed "I Been 'Buked
and I Been Scorned", before Martin Luther
King, Jr. gave his "I Have A Dream" speech.
Toward the end of the speech, King departed
from his prepared text for a partly improvised
peroration on the theme "I have a dream",
prompted by Jackson's cry: "Tell them about
the dream, Martin!"
Jackson said that she hoped her music could
"break down some of the hate and fear that
divide the white and black people in this
country". She also contributed financially
to the movement.
Death
Jackson died in Chicago on January 27, 1972,
of heart failure and diabetes complications.
Two cities paid tribute: Chicago and New Orleans.
Beginning in Chicago, outside the Greater
Salem Baptist Church, 50,000 people filed
silently past her mahogany, glass-topped coffin
in final tribute to the queen of gospel song.
The next day, as many people who could—6,000
or more—filled every seat and stood along
the walls of the city's public concert hall,
the Arie Crown Theater of McCormick Place,
for a two-hour funeral service. Mahalia's
pastor, the Rev. Leon Jenkins, Mayor Richard
J. Daley, and Mrs. Coretta Scott King eulogized
Mahalia during the Chicago funeral as "a friend
– proud, black and beautiful". Sammy Davis,
Jr., and Ella Fitzgerald paid their respects.
Dr. Joseph H. Jackson, president of the National
Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., delivered
the eulogy at the Chicago funeral. Aretha
Franklin closed the Chicago rites with a moving
rendition of "Precious Lord, Take My Hand".
Three days later, a thousand miles away, the
scene repeated itself: again the long lines,
again the silent tribute, again the thousands
filling the great hall of the Rivergate Convention
Center in downtown New Orleans this time.
Mayor Moon Landrieu and Louisiana Governor
John J. McKeithen joined gospel singer Bessie
Griffin. Dick Gregory praised Mahalia's "moral
force" as the main reason for her success.
Lou Rawls sang "Just a Closer Walk With Thee".
The funeral cortège of 24 limousines drove
slowly past her childhood place of worship,
Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, where her recordings
played through loudspeakers. The procession
made its way to Providence Memorial Park in
Metairie, Louisiana, where Jackson was entombed.
Despite the inscription of Jackson's birth
year on her headstone as 1912, she was actually
born in 1911. Among Mahalia's surviving relatives
is her great-nephew, NBA basketball player
Danny Granger.
Jackson's estate was reported at more than
four million dollars. Some reporters estimated
record royalties, television and movie residuals,
and various investments made it worth more.
The bulk of the estate was left to a number
of relatives, many of whom cared for Mahalia
during her early years. Among principal heirs
were relatives including her half-brother,
John Jackson, and aunt, Hannah Robinson. Neither
of her ex-husbands, Isaac Hockenhull and Sigmund
Galloway, were mentioned in her will.
Legacy and honors
Mahalia Jackson's music was played widely
on gospel and Christian radio stations, such
as Family Radio. Her good friend Martin Luther
King, Jr., said, "A voice like this one comes
not once in a century, but once in a millennium."
She was a close friend of Doris Akers, one
of the most prolific gospel composers of the
20th century. In 1958, they co-wrote the hit
"Lord, Don't Move the Mountain". Mahalia also
sang many of Akers' own compositions such
as "God Is So Good to Me", "God Spoke to Me
One Day", "Trouble", "Lead On, Lord Jesus"
and "He's a Light Unto My Pathway", helping
Akers to secure her position as the leading
female Gospel composer of that time. In addition
to her singing career, she mentored the legendary
soul singer Aretha Franklin. Mahalia was also
good friends with Dorothy Norwood and fellow
Chicago-based gospel singer Albertina Walker.
She also discovered a young Della Reese. On
the twentieth anniversary of her death, Smithsonian
Folkways Recording commemorated Jackson with
the album I Sing Because I'm Happy, which
includes interviews about her childhood conducted
by Jules Scherwin.
American Idol winner and Grammy Award-winning
R&B singer Fantasia Barrino has been cast
to play Mahalia Jackson in a biographical
film about her life. The movie will be based
on the 1993 book Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson,
Queen of Gospel. The film is said to be directed
by Euzhan Palcy, according to The Hollywood
Reporter.
The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences
created the Gospel Music or Other Religious
Recording category for Jackson, making her
the first gospel music artist to win the prestigious
Grammy Award.
In December 2008, she was inducted into The
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
A prominent namesake in her native New Orleans
is the Mahalia Jackson Theater of the Performing
Arts, which was remodeled and reopened on
January 17, 2009, with a gala ceremony featuring
Plácido Domingo, Patricia Clarkson and the
New Orleans Opera directed by Robert Lyall.
Selective awards and honors
Grammy Award history
Grammy Hall of Fame
Mahalia Jackson was posthumously inducted
into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a special Grammy
award established in 1973 to honor artists
whose recordings are at least twenty-five
years old and have "qualitative or historical
significance".
Honors
Well-known songs
"What Child Is This"
"How I Got Over"
"Trouble of the World"
"Silent Night"
"Go Tell It on the Mountain"
"Amazing Grace",
"Move On Up A Little Higher",
"Take My Hand, Precious Lord"
"Remember Me
"Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho"
"Holding My Saviour's Hands"
"Roll, Jordan, Roll"
"The Upper Room"
"We Shall Overcome"
"I'm on My Way to Canaan"
"You'll Never Walk Alone"
"His Eye is on the Sparrow"
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus"
"Didn't it Rain"
"Wait Till My Change Comes",
"He Knows My Heart",
"Come on Children, Let's Sing"
In popular culture
She appears in the 1960 film Jazz on a Summer's
Day – an artistic documentary filmed at
the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival. She sings
three gospel numbers at the end of the film,
including "The Lord's Prayer".
In the 1958 movie St. Louis Blues, she played
the character Bessie May and sang in the church
choir.
In the movie Jungle Fever, the character played
by Ossie Davis tries to distract himself from
his son Gator's crack cocaine addiction by
listening to Mahalia Jackson albums by the
hour.
In the 1959 film Imitation of Life, Mahalia
Jackson portrays the choir soloist, singing
"Trouble of the World" at Annie's funeral.
She has no speaking lines, but her singing
performance highlights the climactic scene.
In the 1964 Film The Best Man, Mahalia plays
herself, singing at a Democratic Convention
in a two-minute clip.
Duke Ellington, with whom she occasionally
recorded, most notably on the studio version
of Black, Brown and Beige, paid tribute to
her on his New Orleans Suite album with the
song "Portrait of Mahalia Jackson".
In the 1970 documentary movie Elvis: That's
the Way It Is, Elvis Presley jokes with his
audience that, "I'm gonna bring in the Supremes
tomorrow night, you know. And Mahalia Jackson
singing lead with them."
Alan Parker's 1988 film Mississippi Burning
starts with Mahalia's famous recording of
"Take My Hand, Precious Lord" over the opening
credits, over a poignant scene of a pair of
segregated water fountains.
Columbia Records Discography
World's Greatest Gospel Singer
Sweet Little Jesus Boy
Bless This House
You'll Never Walk Alone
Gospels, Spirituals, & Hymns
Live at Newport 1958
Great Gettin' Up Morning
Come On Children, Let's Sing
The Power and the Glory
I Believe
Everytime I Feel the Spirit
Recorded Live in Europe During Her Latest
Concert Tour
Great Songs of Love and Faith
Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord
Silent Night
Mahalia Jackson's Greatest Hits
Let's Pray Together
Mahalia
Garden of Prayer
My Faith
Mahalia Jackson in Concert Easter Sunday,
1967
A Mighty Fortress
Christmas With Mahalia
Mahalia Sings the Gospel Right Out of the
Church
What the World Needs Now
Compilations
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen Vogue
The Best of Mahalia Jackson Hymns, Spirituals
& Songs of Inspiration
Mahalia Jackson's Greatest Hits Columbia Records
References
Further reading
Jabir, Johari, "On Conjuring Mahalia: Mahalia
Jackson, New Orleans, and the Sanctified Swing,"
American Quarterly, 61, pp. 649–70.
Tony Heilbut, The 
Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times, Limelight
Editions, 1997, ISBN 0-87910-034-6.
Horace Clarence Boyer, How Sweet the Sound:
The Golden Age of Gospel, Elliott and Clark,
1995, ISBN 0-252-06877-7.
Laurraine Goreau, Just Mahalia, Baby, Waco,
TX: World Books, 1975.
Jesse Jackson, Make a Joyful Noise Unto the
Lord!: The Life of Mahalia Jackson, Queen
of Gospel Singers, T.Y. Crowell, 1974.
Mahalia Jackson, Movin On Up, Hawthorn Books,
1966.
Hettie Jones, Big Star Fallin' Mama: Five
Women in Black Music, Viking Press, 1974.
Jules Schwerin, Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson,
Queen of Gospel, Oxford University Press,
1992, ISBN 0-19-507144-1.
Bob Darden, People Get Ready: A New History
of Black Gospel Music, New York: Continuum,
2004. ISBN 0-8264-1436-2
Jean Gay Cornell, Mahalia Jackson: Queen of
Gospel Song, Champaign, IL: Garrard Pub. Co.,
1974. ISBN 0-8116-4581-9
Viale, Gene D. I Remember Gospel and I Keep
On Singing. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4490-7681-8. 
External links
Mahalia Jackson at Find A Grave
I Sing Because I'm Happy Album Details at
Smithsonian Folkways
Mahalia Jackson at the Internet Movie Database
Mahalia Jackson at the Notable Names Database
bio in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Mahalia Jackson discography
Mahalia Jackson: Voice Of The Civil Rights
Movement by NPR
