Mahalia Jackson

• Born: October 26, 1911
• Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
• Died: January 27, 1972
• Place of death: Evergreen Park, near Chicago, Illinois

Gospel singer

Jackson brought the sound of black gospel music to white America and also popularized the genre abroad. Her rich contralto voice helped her sell millions of records, and her devotion to social issues put her at the center of the Civil Rights movement during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Areas of achievement: Civil rights; Music: gospel; Radio and television

Early Life

Mahalia Jackson (mah-HAY-lee-ah) was born Mahala Jackson—the i was added later—to Charity Clark, a laundress and maid, and Johnny Jackson, a longshoreman, part-time barber, and occasional minister. When her mother died in 1918, Jackson and her older brother Paul went to live with her mother’s sister. As a young child, Jackson was always humming and, at age four, was singing with the children’s choir at the Plymouth Rock Baptist Church. At age fourteen, Jackson was known as the skinny little girl with the big voice. She joined the choir of the Mount Moriah Mission Baptist Church and enjoyed singing the traditional hymns but was also fascinated with the rousing music of the nearby Pentecostal church. After completing eighth grade, Jackson left school to work as a laundress.

At age fifteen, Jackson was invited by an aunt to live in Chicago. There she worked menial jobs and joined the choir of the Greater Salem Baptist Church, where she met Louise Lemon and Robert, Prince, and Wilbur Johnson, who sang as a quartet. They asked Jackson to join them, and by 1929 she was a member of the Johnson Gospel Singers. Their fame grew, and in 1932 they were invited to perform at annual Baptist conventions in St. Louis and Cleveland. Jackson was getting more solo parts despite having no vocal training. To remedy this, she auditioned for “Professor” Kendricks, a well-known African American voice teacher. When he suggested that she tone down her voice and restrict her body movements to make her more marketable to white audiences, she left, vowing to sing to please God and herself.

Life’s Work

While singing with the Johnson Gospel Singers, Jackson began working with Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the father of African American gospel music. Dorsey selected Jackson to promote his songs. With their religious messages and a touch of New Orleans jazz, the songs appealed to Jackson, who included them in her repertoire.

Soon, Jackson began to be recognized as a soloist. She sang at revival meetings and political rallies. She was hired by Robert H. Miller, owner of a funeral home, to perform at funerals; when there was no funeral, Miller drove Jackson to concert dates he had set up for her. He encouraged her to record, and her records were sold at the National Baptist Convention. During the mid-1930’s, Jackson became well known outside Chicago, singing in black churches from New York to California. In May, 1937, she recorded two songs for Decca Records; they did not sell well, and Decca dropped her. She traveled with Dorsey in 1939, singing his new songs. His hit “Peace in the Valley” was written for her. Jackson also opened a beauty salon whose success helped her financially.

Jackson’s big break came in 1946. Johnny Meyers, a promoter of gospel music, offered Jackson one thousand dollars to sing at the Golden Gate Ballroom in New York. Bess Berman, owner of Apollo Records, was in the audience and offered her a contract. Jackson recorded four songs for Apollo, including “I’m Gonna Tell God All About It One of These Days,” a song reflecting her personal struggle to achieve success as a gospel singer. Although the record did not sell well, Chicago disc jockey Studs Terkel played it repeatedly, introducing Jackson’s voice to white audiences. At a second recording session, Jackson sang “Move on Up a Little Higher.” Released in December, 1947, the record sold fifty thousand copies during its first four weeks and eventually sold two million copies, the biggest hit any gospel singer had ever had.

Jackson’s career soared. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman, running for reelection, asked Jackson to make some campaign appearances with him. When he was reelected in 1949, he invited her to sing at the White House. She sang at venues across the country, and on October 4, 1950, at Carnegie Hall in New York, Jackson sang gospel to an enthusiastic mixed black and white audience of eight thousand people. She was dubbed the “Queen of Gospel Singers.” She recorded a number of hit songs, including “I Can Put My Trust in Jesus” in 1949, which won an award from the French Academy in 1950. In 1952, Jackson made her first concert tour in Europe. After discontinuing her association with Apollo, she signed a contract with Columbia Records. Columbia not only recorded her music but developed The Mahalia Jackson Show on a CBS radio station in Chicago. Premiering on September 26, 1954, it was the first show hosted by an African American dedicated solely to gospel music. Although the show had its fans, it lacked sponsors and ran only seventeen weeks.

While attending the National Baptist Convention in 1956, Jackson metRalph David Abernathy, an early civil rights leader. He invited her to sing in Montgomery, Alabama, to raise money for the bus boycott that had been called in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks in December, 1955. This event marked the beginning of her involvement in the Civil Rights movement. When Jackson appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1956, her voice reached an even larger audience. She performed at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival and made her film debut the same year in St. Louis Blues, starring Nat King Cole. A year later, Jackson appeared as herself, singing a gospel song, in the film Imitation of Life. In 1960, she gave a concert at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., where Marian Anderson had been barred from singing in 1939 because she was black. Jackson sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” in 1961 at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy and sang a gospel classic at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s March on Washington. She toured Europe and the Holy Land and continued recording. Jackson was awarded the first Grammy in the gospel category in 1962 and a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1972.

Jackson married Isaac “Ike” Hockenhull in 1936; they divorced in 1943. She married Sigmund Galloway in 1964; they divorced in 1966. Jackson also owned Mahalia’s Beauty Salon and later Mahalia’s House of Flowers. She died in Chicago in 1972 of heart failure. When her body lay in state at the Greater Salem Baptist Church, more than forty thousand people filed past her coffin to pay respects. She is buried in Providence Memorial Park in New Orleans.

Significance

Jackson made “black music” popular with all people. She introduced gospel music to white America on the concert stage, over the radio with her records, and on television. Her music was enthusiastically received abroad as well. Jackson might have been even more popular had she given in to numerous suggestions to sing the blues, but to her the blues was the music of despair and gospel the sound of rejoicing and hope. Her music sought to communicate faith, and a worldwide audience responded to this message.

Bibliography

Jackson, Mahalia, and Evan McLean Wylie. Movin’ on Up. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1966. Jackson’s autobiography relates stories of her early life.

Orgill, Roxanne. Mahalia: A Life in Gospel Music. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 2002. This biography for younger readers emphasizes Jackson’s connections with the Civil Rights movement.

Schwerin, Jules. Got to Tell It: Mahalia Jackson, Queen of Gospel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. A biography of Jackson based on the author’s interviews with her. Includes photographs and a discography.

Whitman, Alden. “Mahalia Jackson, Gospel Singer and a Civil Rights Symbol, Dies,” The New York Times, January 28, 1972. This lengthy obituary celebrates Jackson’s life and accomplishments.