Editing Mahalia Jackson (section)

==Early life (1911 – {{circa|1928}})==

Mahalia Jackson was born to Charity Clark and Johnny Jackson, a [[stevedore]] and weekend barber. Clark and Jackson were unmarried, a common arrangement among black women in New Orleans at the time. He lived elsewhere, never joining Charity as a parent. Both sets of Mahalia's grandparents were born into [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], her paternal grandparents on a rice plantation and her maternal grandparents on a cotton plantation in [[Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana|Pointe Coupee Parish]] about {{convert|100|mile|km}} north of [[New Orleans]].<ref name="jackson11-18">Jackson and Wylie, pp. 11–28.</ref><ref name="goreau3-15">Goreau, pp. 3–15.</ref>{{efn|Her grandfather, Reverend Paul Clark, supervised ginning and baling cotton until [[Emancipation Proclamation|Emancipation]], then became a [[sharecropping|sharecropper]] and a Baptist minister. Paul's brother Porter left the plantation at his first opportunity to be a cook aboard a [[steamboat]] traveling between the [[Atchafalaya River]] and New Orleans. One by one, Porter Clark brought Paul's daughters to New Orleans. What little Mahalia knew of her father's family included his two cousins who were traveling vaudeville performers touring with blues singer [[Ma Rainey|Gertrude "Ma" Rainey]]. (Jackson and Wylie, pp. 11–28., Goreau, pp. 3–15.)}} Charity's older sister, Mahala "Duke" Paul, was her daughter's namesake, sharing the spelling without the "I".{{efn|"Mahala" is derived from [[List of minor Hebrew Bible figures, L–Z#Mahalath|Mahalath]], the granddaughter of [[David|King David]]. Jackson added the "I" to her name in 1931. (Burford, pp. 6–32, Goreau, pp. 51–61.)}} Duke hosted Charity and their five other sisters and children in her leaky three-room [[shotgun house]] on Water Street in New Orleans' [[16th Ward of New Orleans|Sixteenth Ward]]. The family called Charity's daughter "Halie"; she counted as the 13th person living in Aunt Duke's house. As Charity's sisters found employment as maids and cooks, they left Duke's, though Charity remained with her daughter, Mahalia's half-brother Peter, and Duke's son Fred. Mahalia was born with [[bowed legs]] and infections in both eyes. Her eyes healed quickly but her Aunt Bell treated her legs with grease water massages with little result. For her first few years, Mahalia was nicknamed "Fishhooks" for the curvature of her legs.<ref name="jackson11-18"/><ref name="goreau3-15"/><ref name="burford2019 33-64">Burford 2019, pp. 33–64.</ref>

The Clarks were devout [[Baptist]]s attending nearby Plymouth Rock Baptist Church. [[Sabbath]] was strictly followed, the entire house shut down on Friday evenings and did not open again until Monday morning. As members of the church, they were expected to attend services, participate in activities there, and follow a code of conduct: no jazz, no [[card game]]s, and no "high life": drinking or visiting bars or [[juke joint]]s. Dancing was only allowed in the church when one was moved by the spirit. The adult choir at Plymouth Rock sang traditional [[Protestant]] [[hymn]]s, typically written by [[Isaac Watts]] and his contemporaries. Jackson enjoyed the music sung by the congregation more. These songs would be [[lining out|lined out]]: called out from the pulpit, with the congregation singing it back. They had a stronger rhythm, accentuated with clapping and foot-tapping, which Jackson later said gave her "the bounce" that carried with her decades later. She dutifully joined the children's choir at age four.<ref name="jackson11-18"/><ref name="goreau3-15"/><ref name="Broughton, p. 53">Broughton, p. 53.</ref> Next door to Duke's house was a small [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal]] church that Jackson never attended but stood outside during services and listened raptly. Music here was louder and more exuberant. The congregation included "jubilees" or uptempo [[Spiritual (music)|spirituals]] in their singing. Shouting and stomping were regular occurrences, unlike at her own church. Jackson later remembered, "These people had no choir or no organ. They used the drum, the cymbal, the tambourine, and the steel triangle. Everybody in there sang, and they clapped and stomped their feet, and sang with their whole bodies. They had a beat, a rhythm we held on to from slavery days, and their music was so strong and expressive. It used to bring tears to my eyes."<ref>Broughton, pp. 52–53.</ref><ref name="burford2019 33-64"/>

When Jackson was five, her mother became ill and died, the cause unknown. Aunt Duke took in Jackson and her half-brother at another house on Esther Street. Duke was severe and strict, with a notorious temper. Jackson split her time between working, usually scrubbing floors and making moss-filled mattresses and [[Caning (furniture)|cane chairs]], playing along the [[levee]]s catching fish and crabs and singing with other children, and spending time at Mount Moriah Baptist Church where her grandfather sometimes preached.  The full-time minister there gave sermons with a sad "singing tone" that Jackson later said would penetrate to her heart, crediting it with strongly influencing her singing style.<ref>Burford 2020, p. 27.</ref> Church became a home to Jackson where she found music and safety; she often fled there to escape her aunt's moods. She attended McDonough School 24, but was required to fill in for her various aunts if they were ill, so she rarely attended a full week of school; when she was 10, the family needed her more at home. She dropped out and began taking in laundry.<ref name="jackson29-38">Jackson and Wylie, pp. 29–38.</ref><ref name="goreau15-25">Goreau, pp. 15–25.</ref><ref name="burford2019 33-64"/>

Jackson worked, and she went to church on Wednesday evenings, Friday nights, and most of the day on Sundays. Already possessing a big voice at age 12, she joined the junior choir. She was surrounded by music in New Orleans, more often blues pouring out of her neighbors' houses, although she was fascinated with [[Second line (parades)|second line funeral processions]] returning from cemeteries when the musicians played brisk jazz. Her older cousin Fred, not as intimidated by Duke, collected records of both kinds. The family had a [[phonograph]] and while Aunt Duke was at work, Jackson played records by [[Bessie Smith]], [[Mamie Smith]], and [[Ma Rainey]], singing along while she scrubbed floors. Bessie Smith was Jackson's favorite and the one she most-often mimicked.<ref name="jackson29-38"/><ref name="goreau15-25"/><ref name="burford2019 33-64"/>

Jackson's legs began to straighten on their own when she was 14, but conflicts with Aunt Duke never abated. Whippings turned into being thrown out of the house for slights and manufactured infractions and spending many nights with one of her nearby aunts. The final confrontation caused her to move into her own rented house for a month, but she was lonely and unsure of how to support herself. After two aunts, Hannah and Alice, moved to Chicago, Jackson's family, concerned for her, urged Hannah to take her back there with her after a Thanksgiving visit.<ref name="jackson29-38"/><ref>Goreau, pp. 39–51.</ref>{{efn|Jackson appears on the 1930 census living with Aunt Duke in New Orleans. Jackson's autobiography and an extensively detailed biography written by Laurraine Goreau place Jackson in Chicago in 1928 when she met and worked with [[Thomas A. Dorsey]]. (Burford 2019, pp. 33–64, Burford 2020, p. 8–32, Harris, p. 258, Marovich, p. 80, Jackson and Wylie,  pp. 39–50, Goreau, pp. 51–61.)}}