Mahalia, “Queen Of Gospel”

“The Queen of Gospel” Mahalia Jackson sings “How I Got Over” during a 1960s performance in Chicago.

Though she is not a blues singer Mahalia Jackson has long been enjoyed by blues lovers for her powerful contralto voice. Mahalia grew up in New Orleans where she was raised by relatives from the age of five after the death of mother. She began singing in the church as an adolescent and displayed such talent that her aunt predicted early on, she would one day sing for royalty. In 1927 when she was only sixteen Mahalia moved to Chicago where, one day following a performance in church, she was invited to join the Greater Salem Baptist Church Choir. The year of 1929 brought an important chance meeting between pianist Thomas A. Dorsey and herself. Formerly the blues pianist “Georgia Tom” Dorsey he became known as the “Father Of Gospel Music” and the pair toured together for more than a decade beginning in the mid-30s. As an important figure of the civil rights movement Mahalia sang at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 before Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “Have A Dream” speech. When she was finished she instructed Dr. King to, “Tell them about the dream.”

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