Provided By: Ruth L. Ratny Joyful Noise, LLC In honor of Women’s History Month, ChicagoGospel.com salutes the contributions of gospel superstar Mahalia Jackson.
While Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) was gospel’s first superstar. She also earned her rightful place in the pantheon of great women of American history by inspiring an immortal turning point of the Civil Rights Movement of the mid 20th Century.
Mahalia was at the pinnacle of success when Dr. Ralph Abernathy, a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957, invited her to sing at a much-needed fundraiser in Montgomery to keep the equality struggle afloat.
By this time Mahalia was famous and influential, the Oprah of her day. She had a lucrative contract with Columbia Records, which gave her top billing as “the world’s greatest gospel singer.” Earlier, she’d had a long association with Apollo Records, where her single, “Move on Up (a little higher)” became the best-selling gospel record of all time.
Mahalia was giving 200 concerts a year in packed churches and auditoriums. She was so popular and powerful as a guest on all the top-rated TV shows that Elvis, who loved her, refused to follow her appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” She sang overseas before heads of state and royalty and even had her own radio show.
So it was with some trepidation that Dr. Ralph Abernathy asked about her fee. “Oh, I don’t charge the marchin’ people,” she replied, much to his relief.
Mahalia and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., nearly 20 years her junior in age, but light years ahead of her, met for the first time at the contentious Montgomery fundraiser. The parishioners were terrified as they heard the National Guard outside protecting the church from the threatening, angry white men surrounding it.
After the fundraiser, Mahalia, Martin, Ralph and other SCLC leaders huddled over coffee in the Abernathy dining room. As Mahalia silently absorbed what these dedicated men were saying about what must be done to shed the shackles of inequity, Mahalia had a life-changing epiphany.
Mahalia was true to her word. She worked tirelessly, side-by-side with Martin, bringing thousands of people together to hear his message. A quarter-million black people had come for the Freedom March in Washington, D.C., standing before the Lincoln Memorial that hot August day in 1963. Television cameras were capturing the speeches, the music, and the crowd.
Martin chose Mahalia’s song, the resonating “I been Buked and I been Scorned.” Mahalia sat down and Martin took the podium and began his prepared speech.
Listening, Mahalia leaned forward in her seat. “Martin,” she called out, “Martin, Tell ‘em bout the Dream.” He nodded imperceptibly and a beat after he concluded the speech that no one remembers, and began, “I have a dream …” The rest is history.
Ruth L. Ratny is the managing director of Joyful Noise, LLC, the company that will produce a major motion picture about Mahalia Jackson in Chicago this year.