Mahalia Jackson, an Unsung Hero- Black History Month Special

     Mahalia Jackson, an unsung hero, and the singer your parents/grandparents probably all know and love. Ever wonder who she is? In this blog I’m going to be talking about who she is and her legacy in black history. Mahalia Jackson was known as a gospel queen. One of her most famous songs called “Move On Up a Little Higher” sold over two million copies. As an active supporter of the Civil Rights Movement she participated in the Montgomery bus boycott and one of her famous quotes are “Tell ‘em Martin, tell ‘em about the dream!” Okay, after reviewing her let’s dive a little deeper.


Mahalia Jackson was originally Mahala Jackson before adding an “i” to her name. She was born on October 26 1911 in New Orleans. Mahalia was inspired by singers such as Bessie Smith and began singing in Mount Moriah Baptist Church. She eventually wanted to sing music that wasn’t religious, rather non-gospel but she made a promise and stuck to gospel. Later she sang and recorded a song called “Move On Up a Little Higher” which sold over millions of copies and her popularity eventually rose all over the nation. There is a speech that we probably all know was the “I Have a Dream Speech,” we mostly know that Martin Luther King was the one who announced that speech, but something that wasn’t really known was that when King started going off script, Mahalia Jackson was behind him and boldly shouted “tell em’ Martin”, “tell em about the dream!” 


Mahalia faced a couple of challenges in her life. One challenge is when Mahalia was around in her 60s she had to have many hospitalizations because of heart failure. She later sadly passed away which made her last concert in 1971 at Munich, Germany. Another challenge she faced was during her performances there was always something or someone that got in the way of her performances, since segregation was still a law. Mahalia also struggled with money, even when she was a professional singer.

As you can see Mahalia is an important character in black history. Struggling through money during segregation is tough. Her gospel singing made a lot of people change their opinion on colored people, she even had a lot of white fans! Even if she passed away in her 60s she still made a great change! Anyway, that’s it from me!


Big thanks to:

https://www.biography.com/musician/mahalia-jackson

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mahalia_Jackson

https://drive.google.com/file/d/18kFFUC03FQ3QQbRX6OOmC5jvLYwuY-nz/view

for research!

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2021 at 10:03 AM

    Great blog! I like how you talked to the readers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2021 at 10:06 AM

    This was an amazing blog. I would change anything, but did you mean to not have a space between the third and fourth paragraph?

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousFebruary 26, 2021 at 10:06 AM

    I love how you made your topic paragraph very interesting, and get people hooked! Great job!

    ReplyDelete

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