Mahalia Jackson

About Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson is widely considered the best and most influential gospel singer in history. She grew up in the Carrollton neighborhood of New Orleans, where she began singing in her church. She moved to Chicago at age 16 and began touring with a gospel group, the Johnson Gospel Singers. During her history-making career, Mahalia Jackson was the first gospel singer to perform at Carnegie Hall (1952) and at Newport Jazz Festival (1958). She also performed at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, at the March on Washington in 1963, and at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was also a friend.

With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to the development and spread of gospel blues in black churches throughout the U.S. During a time when racial segregation was pervasive in American society, she met considerable success in a recording career, selling an estimated 22 million records and performing in front of integrated and secular audiences in concert halls around the world.

“A voice like this one comes not once in a century, but once in a millennium.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Legacy and awards:

  • The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences created the Gospel Music category for Jackson, making her the first gospel music artist to win the prestigious Grammy Award
  • The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, inducted 2008
  • Inducted as a Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois
  • Awarded the Order of Lincoln, by Governor of Illinois in 1967, the state’s highest honor.
  • 1976 Grammy, Best Soul Gospel Performance for “How I Got Over”
  • 1972 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award
  • 1962 Grammy, Best Gospel Or Other Religious Recording, “Great Songs of Love and Faith”
  • 1961 Grammy, Best Gospel or Religious Recording, “Every Time I Feel the Spirit”
  • 1978 Gospel Music Hall of Fame, Inducted
  • 1988 Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
  • 1997 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Inducted as an “Early Influence”
  • 1998 U.S. Postal Service issued Mahalia Jackson commemorative postage stamp
  • 2008 Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, Inducted

Grammy Hall of Fame songs: This distinction was created to honor recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance that are at least 25 years old.

  • 1947 “Move On Up a Little Higher” Gospel (single) Apollo 1998
  • 1958 “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” Gospel (single) Columbia 2010
  • 1956 “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” Gospel (single) Columbia 2012