1. She had early skeptics in Chicago\u2019s Black churches.<\/p>\n
Not long after moving here from New Orleans in 1931, at age 20, Jackson started belting out solos with the Johnson Singers, a quintet based at Greater Salem Missionary Baptist Church, then located in Armour Square. Although she wowed many folks, Chicago\u2019s more conservative Black ministers denounced her blues-tinged Southern sound. And some found her \u201cphysical style irreverent, even lewd,\u201d write Timothy B. Tyson and Mary D. Williams in Mahalia Jackson, Moving On Up a Little Higher. Jackson insisted that the intensity was firmly rooted in her faith: \u201cI want my hands \u2026 my feet \u2026 my whole body to say all that is in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
2. She often lent her booming contralto to political campaigns.<\/p>\n
Even before she became a recording star, she was in high demand at local rallies for politicians like William L. Dawson, a Black alderman who was elected to Congress in 1942, and at precinct captain meetings. \u201cI sang for I don\u2019t know how many of those different meetings a night\u2009\u2014\u2009and, baby, all those politicians would go crazy!\u201d she once declared.<\/p>\n
3. Ed Sullivan put her on TV.<\/p>\n
Jackson made her national television debut in 1952 on Toast of the Town, the original name of Sullivan\u2019s long-running variety show that would later feature Elvis and the Beatles. According to Tyson and Williams, Jackson became \u201cthe Black performer most frequently appearing on American television in the 1950s.\u201d They quote Motown singer Smokey Robinson on the effect of that exposure: \u201cMahalia crossed all barriers, and just as many white people had Mahalia Jackson in their homes listening to her as Black people.\u201d<\/p>\n
4. She spurred on one of the greatest speeches of all time.<\/p>\n
As Martin Luther King Jr. began improvising the climax of his address in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963, Jackson, who had heard a version a few weeks earlier, called out, \u201cTell \u2019em about the dream!\u201d The book describes the subsequent moments: \u201cStanding just a few feet in front of the podium, she entered into a kind of duet with King, urging him on, echoing him, praising him.\u201d<\/p>\n
5. She formed an unlikely friendship with Richard J. Daley.<\/p>\n
The mayor saw her as an asset to attract Black votes for his Democratic machine. So as Jackson got involved in the civil rights movement, Daley, who was no proponent, gave her free access to civic venues like Soldier Field and McCormick Place to hold rallies. And in 1956, when Jackson faced a hostile reception after moving into Chatham, which was mostly white at the time, Daley provided security. \u201cSomeone shot through one of my windows,\u201d she recalled. \u201cMayor Daley put a guard outside my house for a full year.\u201d The book suggests Jackson was naive in her belief that the mayor could be persuaded to make meaningful changes in the city\u2019s racial divide. But his affinity for her was real. When Jackson died in 1972, at 60, Daley opened McCormick\u2019s 5,000-seat Arie Crown Theater for her funeral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1. She had early skeptics in Chicago\u2019s Black churches. Not long after moving here from New Orleans in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":979984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[187953,393275,182387,98255,393265,12276,960,413,327,393271,7031,195474,393273,41566,78403,89348,393267,5386,1818,243362,21075,393269,294930,58441,50536,152003,393270,21461,195460,230133,21479,2541,978,393266,393268,393274,2058,393272],"class_list":["post-979983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-alderman","tag-american-television","tag-arie-crown-theater","tag-armour-square","tag-black-churches","tag-chatham","tag-chicago","tag-civil-rights","tag-congress","tag-contralto","tag-d-c","tag-democratic-machine","tag-ed-sullivan","tag-elvis","tag-five-things","tag-gospel","tag-greater-salem-missionary-baptist-church","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-mahalia-jackson","tag-martin-luther-king-jr","tag-mary-d-williams","tag-mayor-daley","tag-mccormick","tag-mccormick-place","tag-motown","tag-moving-on-up-a-little-higher","tag-new-orleans","tag-richard-j-daley","tag-smokey-robinson","tag-soldier-field","tag-southern","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-johnson-singers","tag-timothy-b-tyson","tag-toast-of-the-town","tag-washington","tag-william-l-dawson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=979983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/979983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/979984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=979983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=979983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=979983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}