Also American

Person · 1911–1972

Mahalia Jackson

The "Queen of Gospel," whose voice carried the spirit of the Black church into the heart of the Civil Rights Movement.

A bridge between gospel and the [[civil-rights-movement]].

Mahalia Jackson refused to sing secular music, devoting her towering voice to gospel. A friend of Martin Luther King Jr., she sang at the 1963 March on Washington — and it was her call of "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" that prompted his most famous improvisation.

The Civil Rights MovementBlack Music

On the timeline

  1. December 1947
    Mahalia Jackson's "Move On Up a Little Higher"

    Becomes the best-selling gospel record of all time.

Resources

The web

Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.

  • part of·Event
    The March on Washington

    Mahalia Jackson sang before King spoke — and urged him to "tell them about the dream."