Daughter of John A Jackson, Sr. and Charity Jackson Throughout her celebrated career, gospel singer Mahalia Jackson used her rich, forceful voice and inspiring interpretations of spirituals to move audiences around the world to tears of joy. What Shows Have Been Renewed or Canceled? })(); My biggest surprise was the fact that she married twice, and was in love with a preacher which appeared to be the love of her life. Photo by Don Cravens/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQfv2QTs4tc. Soon the emotional and resonant singing of the "Gospel Queen," as she had become known, began reaching the white community as well. Mahalia Jackson was born to Charity Clark and Johnny Jackson on October 26, 1911 ( per Biography ). His life was cut short due to cancer which was in the final stages. https://policies.google.com/technologies/types. She listened to the rhythms of the woodpeckers, the rumblings of the trains, the whistles of the steamboats, the songs of sailors and street peddlers. The group quickly established a reputation as one of Chicago's better gospel groups, appearing regularly in concerts and gospel-song plays with Jackson in the lead. According to Biography.com, Mahalia Jackson grew up on the south side of Chicago. But in the blues, its all despair; when youre done singing, youre still lonely and sorrowful. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994. Danielle Brooks portrays the Civil Rights Icon in the TV biopic Ahead of the premiere of Lifetime's 'Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia,' tap into some fun facts about Queen of Gospel Mahalia. "It sold like wildfire," Alex Haley wrote in Reader's Digest. Movin' On Up. The audience was racially integrated. She appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Dinah Shore television shows, at Carnegie Hall, and in 1958 for the first time at the Newport Jazz Festival. Did Mahalia Jackson ever get married? Although she made her first recordings in 1937 for Decca, it was not until 1946, when she switched to the small Apollo label, that Jackson established a national reputation in the African-American community. At the request of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Jackson participated in the Montgomery bus boycott, the groundbreaking demonstration that had been prompted by Alabaman Rosa Parkss refusal to move from a bus seat reserved for whites. She was a noblewoman, an artist without peer, a magnetic ambassador of goodwill for the United States in other lands, an exemplary servant of her God. As a teenager she moved to Chicago, Illinois to live with a aunt and she begin singing professionally with the choir of the Greater Salem Baptist Church (where she became a member) and with the Johnson Gospel Singers, one of the first professional touring gospel groups. Encyclopedia.com. Stores the information on whether the user has agreed to Google's privacy policy. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1986. Encyclopedia of Black America. . In spite of her fame and success, however, the Queen of Gospel always remained true to what she held to be her religious mission and refused to sing secular blues songs or to appear in nightclubs. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/jackson-mahalia, Rosen, Isaac "Jackson, Mahalia We had one with excellent speakers, it was a beautiful, wooden cabinet with built in speakers, radio and record player. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1966. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues. If you hold the rights to one or more of the images on this page and object to its/their appearance here, please contact Fembio. She wrote in her autobiography, Movin On Up : I feel God heard me and wanted me to devote my life to his songs and that is why he suffered my prayers to be answeredso that nothing would distract me from being a gospel singer.. (Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Through her recordings she lives and leaves behind a glorious legacy- truly joyful sound. Industries Civil Rights Music. She was previously married to Minters Sigmund Galloway and Isaac Lanes Grey Hockenhull. As . Jackson then started working with Thomas A. Dorsey, a gospel composer; the two performed around the U.S., further cultivating an audience for Jackson. She will always be the uncontested queen of gospel music. Mahalia Jackson in her autobiography Movin' On Up, 1966, p. 212. Mahalia Jackson, (born October 26, 1911, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.died January 27, 1972, Evergreen Park, near Chicago, Illinois), American gospel music singer, known as the "Queen of Gospel Song." Jackson was brought up in a strict religious atmosphere. . Though born into an extremely religious New Orleans family, she spent hours listening to the recordings of blues singers Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey and could be found at every parade that passed her neighborhood of Pinching Town in New Orleans. Move On Up a Little Higher became her signature song. 2003. In 1934 she received $25 for her first recording, Gods Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares., Though she sang traditional hymns and spirituals almost exclusively, Jackson continued to be fascinated by the blues. Please enable JavaScript in your browser's settings to use this part of Geni. Mahalia Jackson: Gospel Singer (1992) (popular biography). Mahalia was named after her aunt, who was known as Aunt Duke, popularly known as Mahalia Clark-Paul. She passed away at the age of 60 in 27 January 1972. Sources. No data is submitted to YouTube unless you playback this video. Mahalia Jackson was born on October 26, 1911 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Jackson began touring again, only this time she did it not as the hand-to-mouth singer who had toured with Dorsey years before. Goreau, L., Just Mahalia, Baby, Pelican, 1975. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in October 1950 and toured Europe in 1952. He did recover, and Mahalia never broke that vow. These cookies are usually placed by third-party advertising networks, which may use information about your website visits to develop a profile of your interests. In 1934 she received $25 for her first recording, Gods Gonna Separate the Wheat from the Tares., Though she sang traditional hymns and spirituals almost exclusively, Jackson continued to be fascinated by the blues. (April 27, 2023). As a child she started singing almost as soon as [she] was walking and talking. She loved music from an early age not only the hymns in her Mount Moriah Baptist Church, but the whole range of music in New Orleans, from the brass bands in the streets, the jazz of Jelly Roll Morton or the recorded blues of Bessie Smith to the uninhibited, emotional singing, clapping and stomping of the many small pentecostal or Holiness churches. But she also sang in the choir and as a soloist at the Greater Salem Baptist Church and soon was touring along with four other singers from the church. Then she began to sing to supplement her income. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mahalia-jackson, "Mahalia Jackson For this a 2-click solution is used, which means that no data is sent to YouTube before you decide to start playback by clicking on the preview. "Move On Up a Little Higher" came a long way back in 1947, it sold millions of copies and became the highest selling gospel single in history. As the writer Jesse Jackson (not related to the civil rights leader) said in his biography of Mahalia, Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord!, It was like choosing between the devil and God. ", In 1939, Jackson started touring with renowned composer Thomas A. Dorsey. Although she had grown up on Water Street, where black and white families lived together peacefully, she was well aware of the injustice engendered by the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation in the South. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Ourfamily calledour stereo setby the pet name, Johnson. Boyer, Horace "Jackson, Mahalia "Mahalia Jackson She was active in the Black Civil Rights Movement, and when Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous I have a dream speech in Washington in 1963, Jackson inspired the crowd by singing an old slave-song, now understood as a protest song. She was invited to be a soloist and started singing with a quintet that performed Ranked #78 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women in Rock N Roll. During the Washington protest march in 1963, seconds before Dr. King delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech, Jackson sang the old inspirational, I Been Buked and I Been Scorned to over 200,000 people. She toured Europe again in 1962 and 1963-64, and in 1970 she performed in Africa, Japan, and India. } "I see that what he does when he hears her . While Johns relationship with Mahalia Jackson features heavily in the Lifetime film, few details are revealed about him in accounts of her real life. For her efforts in helping international understanding she received the Silver Dove Award. Then, copy and paste the text into your bibliography or works cited list. She continued to make records that brought her fairly little monetary reward. Participated in the civil rights movement, 1950-60s; performed I Been Buked and I Been Scorned as a preamble to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s I Have a Dream speech, Washington, D.C., 1963. https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/jackson-mahalia-1911-1972, Rosen, Isaac "Jackson, Mahalia 19111972 At first she continued washing clothes for white families and worked as a hotel maid. Jackson died in 1972, never having fulfilled her dream of building a nondenominational, nonsectarian temple in Chicago, where people could sing, celebrate life, and nurture the talents of children. Black News, Commentary and Culture | The Washington Informer. ." 2023 . Gale Group, 1999. Mahalia made up her mind. Gospel music is nothing but singing of good tidings - spreading the good news. [CDATA[ Her first marriage was in 1935 to Isaac "Ike" Hockenhull, a chemist who impressed Mahalia with his manners and the attention he showered on her. Encyclopedia.com. Encyclopedia.com. At that time however, music was just a sideline for Mahalia who worked as a laundress (washing clothes for a $1 a day), studied beauty culture at Madam C.J. The woman who would become known as the Gospel Queen was born in 1911 to a poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. . ", Later in her career, Jackson continued to turn down lucrative requests to sing in nightclubs-she was offered as much as $25,000 a performance in Las Vegas-even when the club owners promised not to serve whisky while she performed. She was invited to be a soloist and started singing additionally with a quintet that performed at funerals and church services throughout the city. Best Known For: 20th-century recording artist Mahalia Jackson, known as the Queen of Gospel, is revered as one of the greatest musical figures in U.S. history. The Life of M.J., Queen of Gospel Singers (N.Y., 1974); L. Goreau, Just M., Baby (Gretna, La., 1975); E. Witter, M. J.. (Milford, Mich., 1985); C. Wolfe, M. J.. (N.Y., 1990); D. Donloe, M. J. ." "Move On Up a Little Higher" became her signature song. She returned to Chicago after five years on the road and opened a beauty salon and a flower shop, both of which drew customers from the gospel and church communities. Come On, Children, Lets Sing , Columbia. ." She returned to the Newport Jazz Festival that summer, performing with Duke Ellington, and in October she was a guest on the television special The Bing Crosby Show. Gretna, Louisiana, Pelican Publishing, 1984. In her bedroom at night, the young Mahalia would quietly sing the songs of blues legend Bessie Smith. As the writer Jesse Jackson (not related to the civil rights leader) said in his biography of Mahalia, Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord!, "It was like choosing between the devil and God. Encyclopedia.com. On October 4, 1950, Jackson played to a packed house of blacks and whites at Carnegie Hall in New York City. When sixteen-year-old Mahala Jackson (as she was named at birth) arrived in Chicago in 1927, she had already developed the vocal style that was to win her the title of "world's greatest gospel singer." She never had children of her own, but she did become the mother to a boy that she met on the streets one day. Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord, Columbia. "Mahalia Jackson ." She was an actress, known for Mississippi Burning (1988), Glory Road (2006) and An American Crime (2007). She pursued her life singing gospel music and bringing it out of churches. 5 vols. Some of which are essential while others help us to improve our services and generate revenue to cover our costs. ." Undergoing a hysterectomy meant that she could not have any children of her own. } . In her bedroom at night, young Mahalia would quietly sing the songs of blues legend Bessie Smith. As the writer Jesse Jackson (not related to the civil rights leader) said in his biography of Mahalia, Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord!, It was like choosing between the devil and God. Contemporary Musicians. Retrieved April 27, 2023 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/jackson-mahalia.