Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson isn’t just the most important vocalist in the history of Black gospel music; she is a civil rights hero who broke down both musical and racial barriers. Her fame would help transform gospel into a globally recognized art form. Born in New Orleans in 1911—her grandparents were former slaves—Jackson soaked up the city’s rich music, both sacred and secular, before relocating to Chicago. When she signed with Apollo Records in 1946, there were few other soloists performing ecstatic gospel informed by blues. By the end of the ’60s, however, there wasn’t a gospel, soul, or rock singer who escaped the singer’s vocal innovations, particularly her use of melisma. Jackson’s catalog is littered with legacy moments, including the 1947 breakthrough “Move On Up a Little Higher” and 1958’s Black, Brown, & Beige, a boundary-breaking collaboration with Duke Ellington. But it’s her version of Thomas A. Dorsey’s “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” recorded for Columbia Records in 1956, that truly captures the liberation at the heart of her faith. She performed the song—Martin Luther King Jr.’s favorite—at the reverend’s funeral in 1968. Jackson passed away four years later at age 60.