Jackson, Mahalia (1911–1972)

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Jackson, Mahalia (1911–1972)

American gospel and spiritual singer, known as the Gospel Queen, who extended black music from cabarets into the homes of the white middle class. Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 26, 1911; died of heart failure in Evergreen Park, Illinois, on January 27, 1972; daughter of Charity Clark (a laundress and maid) and Johnny Jackson (a Baptist preacher, barber, and longshoreman); married Isaac "Ike" Hockenhull (an entrepreneur), in 1936 (divorced); married Sigmond Galloway (a musician), in 1965 (divorced).

Mahalia Jackson was an optimist by nature. When told she could have been a great blues singer, she replied, "Blues are the songs of despair. Gospel songs are the songs of hope. When you sing gospel, you have the feeling there's a cure for what's wrong. When you're through with the blues, you've got nothing to rest on." Her optimistic attitude was at odds with some in the black community throughout much of her career. From the beginning, hers was a different route to fame and fortune than many black entertainers. She never bought a ticket to the theater or a movie house, much less performed in a nightclub. Launching her career in black churches, she moved easily into mainstream America where her spirituals and gospel songs were greatly loved. As a result, she became a wealthy woman who seemingly escaped the discrimination other blacks suffered at the hands of the white entertainment world. Black music was simply too marvelous to remain in the confines of one culture, a fact Jackson recognized and exploited. Her audacity, sense of purpose, and business abilities made her an American star.

Mahalia Jackson was born in 1911 in New Orleans and grew up in a three-room shack on Water Street between the railroad tracks and the Mississippi River levee, the cradle of black music. Her absent father Johnny Jackson was a stevedore who preached on Sundays and moonlighted as a barber. Her upbringing was very religious. Her mother Charity Jackson and her Aunt Duke had no use for the blues and what they represented. Some members of the family were in show business, however. Two cousins toured with Ma Rainey , but they were the exception. Mahalia was five when her mother died, and her Aunt Duke made certain that family standards were upheld. She went to the Mount Moriah Baptist Church where her father sometimes preached on Sundays. "I loved best to sing in the congregation," noted Jackson.

All around me I could hear the foot-tapping and hand-clapping. That gave me the bounce. I liked it better than being up in the choir singing anthems. I liked to sing songs which testify to the glory of the Lord. Those anthems are too dead and cold for me. As David said in the Bible: "Make a joyous noise unto the Lord." That's me.

A devout Baptist, Jackson was drawn to the uninhibited fervor in the Holiness Church next door. The physical involvement induced by the music inspired her and left a permanent mark on her performance style. Jackson recounted:

These people had no choir or no organ. They used the drum, the cymbal, the tambourine and the steel triangle. Everybody in there sang, and they clapped and stomped their feet, and sang with their whole bodies. They had a beat, a rhythm we held on to from slavery days, and their music was so strong and expressive. It used to bring tears to my eyes.… [When] these Holiness people tore into "I'm So Glad Jesus Lifted me Up!" they came out with real jubilation. I say: Don't let the devil steal the beat from the Lord! The Lord don't like us to act dead. If you feel it, tap your feet a little—dance to the glory of the Lord.

As a distinctive form of music, gospel has a recent history, dating back only to the 1930s. It was a combination of spirituals and the revivalist hymns sung by 18th-century white settlers. Amazing Grace, probably the quintessential gospel song, is loved by blacks and whites alike. But blacks freed these hymns from their European constraints, combining them with an African song style to create a national music in which African elements dominate. Gospel made jazz, blues, and rock more acceptable to white audiences.

When Mahalia Jackson moved to Chicago in 1927, at age 16, black music was thriving in a city filled with immigrants from the South. Gospel and blues were a soothing balm for the homesick. She was soon the lead singer at the Greater Salem Baptist Church on Sundays, supporting herself as a maid and laundress during the week. By the mid-1930s, she was touring with the Johnson Gospel Singers, led by the son of the pastor of her church. Her first recording for Decca-Coral (1937) was "God's Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares" which was an immediate hit. By the 1940s, she was traveling throughout America with Thomas A. Dorsey, the "Father of Gospel Music." By 1946, "Move On Up a Little Higher" had sold a million copies, establishing her as the Gospel Queen.

For decades, blacks had performed only where they were allowed—in Southern vaudeville and tent shows, clubs in Harlem and Chicago, and in some theaters. Breaking into the white world was not easy. When black entertainers were invited, it was through the back door. The Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let Marian Anderson sing in Washington's Independence Hall in the 1930s, typical of a form of discrimination black entertainers suffered time and again.

In the early 1950s, however, things were changing, and new doors were opening into the white world. On October 4, 1950, Mahalia Jackson soloed at Carnegie Hall with the National Baptist Convention. "I stood there," she recalled, "gazing out at the thousands of men and women who had come to hear me—a baby nurse and washer woman—on the stage where great artists like Caruso and Lily Pons and Marian Anderson had sung, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make a sound." But the more she sang, "the more people in the audience cried out for joy. As the beat picked up, hands started flying and feet started tapping and folks began to shout all over the great hall."

In 1952, her song "I Can Put My Trust in Jesus" won her a prestigious French award and soon she was touring Europe. By 1954, she had her own television program, "The Mahalia Jackson Show," and was leaving Apollo for Columbia Records. Jazz musician John Hammond warned her at the time, "Mahalia, if you want ads in Life, and to be known to the white audience, do it. But if you want to keep on singing for the black audience, forget singing with Columbia, because they don't know the black market at all." But this contract opened up a new world to Mahalia Jackson.

With expanding opportunities, she soon became a wealthy woman, making eight records which sold over a million copies each. Everyone knew her songs, which included "I Believe," "Precious Lord, Take My Hand," "How Great Thou Art," "It's No Secret What God Can Do," "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," and "When I Wake Up in Glory." Unlike some stars, she managed her money extremely well. Early in her career, Jackson had taken a course in beauty culture at Madame C.J. Walker 's and opened Mahalia's Beauty Salon in Chicago. She bought a florist shop and later opened Mahalia Jackson Chicken Dinners. She invested heavily in real estate and made money. Extravagant spending was never her style; she wanted economic security. Joe Goldberg, the producer of her television show, recalled meeting Jackson at the Garrick Theater in Chicago:

I expected some sort of Daddy Grace routine, with the Rolls Royce and the ermine and the entourage. There was no one in the theater except a big woman in an old overcoat sitting and eating a bag of popcorn. I asked her if she knew where I would find Miss Jackson. "I'm Mahalia, honey," she said. "Are we gonna work together?"

In 1969, she told Max Jones in London, "I don't work for money. I sing because I love to sing."

Some never forgave Mahalia Jackson for crossing over. Writes Tony Heilbut: "One regrets the transmutation of Mahalia Jackson from shouter to huckster." In the same vein, John Hammond griped: "I grew very disenchanted with Mahalia. She was more talented than anybody, but she wanted to do that phony religious stuff that white folks like." Had she followed their advice, the world would have never enjoyed her marvelous renditions of "Danny Boy," "Silent Night," "Trees," "Summertime," and "The Lord's Prayer." Perhaps this is a debate which can never be settled. Did Mahalia Jackson leave her roots or did she expand them?

The public adored her, buying her records, watching her on television, attending her shows. Jackson never saw a conflict between her faith and her career. Born in poverty, she was glad to be able to afford a decent life. She used her money wisely, establishing the Mahalia Jackson Scholarship Foundation to help others. She also encouraged the careers of Aretha Franklin and Della Reese . But Jackson was not a politically passive bystander. A strong supporter of the civil-rights movement, she was highly visible during the 1956 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, and delivered her own charged version of "We Shall Overcome." She also sang at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, and, as a loyal friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, sang "How I Got Over" in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 "March on Washington" rally. At King's funeral, she sang his last request, "Precious Lord."

When Mahalia Jackson died in 1972, 40,000 mourners filed past her open coffin in Greater Salem Baptist Church. Because of the size of the crowd, her service was held at Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center; it was probably the largest funeral ever seen in that city. The international press remembered her accomplishments, and the president of the United States eulogized her. To those who had criticized her for bringing jazz into the church, she had generally responded with scripture: "Oh, clap your hands, all ye people! Shout unto the Lord with the voice of a trumpet!" Gospel songs, she said, made "a joyful noise unto the Lord." Indeed, Mahalia Jackson made a joyful noise.

sources:

Anderson, Robert, and Gail North. Gospel Music Encyclopedia. NY: Sterling, 1979.

Parachin, Victor M. "Mahalia Jackson," in American History. October 1994.

Pleasants, Henry. The Great American Popular Singers. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1974.

Smith, Jessie Carney. Notable Black American Women. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1992.

related media:

Imitation of Life (125 min. film), starring Lana Turner , Juanita Moore , Sandra Dee , and John Gavin, featured Mahalia Jackson singing "Trouble of the World," Universal, 1959.

Mahalia! (90 min. documentary), produced by Jules Victor Schwerin, 1983 (centers around Jackson's triumphant 1972 Christian musical tour of Europe; songs include "Didn't It Rain").

Mahalia Jackson and Elizabeth Cotten : Two Remarkable Ladies (58 min. documentary), CBS-Mastervision, 1974.

Mahalia Jackson (34 min, film), produced by Jules Victor Schwerin, 1974.

St. Louis Blues (93 min. film), based on the life and music of W.C. Handy, starring Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald , Eartha Kitt , Pearl Bailey , Ruby Dee , Cab Calloway and Nat King Cole, with costumes by Edith Head , Paramount, 1958.

John Haag , Associate Professor of History, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia