Editing Mahalia Jackson (section)

== Fish and bread singer ({{circa|1931}} – 1945) ==

Steadily, the Johnson Singers were asked to perform at other church services and [[Revival meeting|revival]]s. When larger, more established black churches expressed little interest in the Johnson Singers, they were courted by smaller storefront churches and were happy to perform there, though less likely to be paid as much or at all. Newly arrived migrants attended these storefront churches; the services were less formal and reminiscent of what they had left behind. Jackson found an eager audience in new arrivals, one calling her "a fresh wind from the down-home religion."<ref name="Harris, p. 258">Harris, p. 258.</ref> Black Chicago was hit hard by the [[Great Depression]], driving church attendance throughout the city, which Jackson credited with starting her career.<ref>Jackson and Wylie, p. 56.</ref> Gradually and by necessity, larger churches became more open to Jackson's singing style. As many of them were suddenly unable to meet their mortgage notes, adapting their musical programs became a viable way to attract and keep new members.<ref>Goreau, p. 62.</ref>

When she first arrived in Chicago, Jackson dreamed of being a nurse or a teacher, but before she could enroll in school she had to take over Aunt Hannah's job when she became ill. Jackson became a laundress and took a series of domestic and factory jobs while the Johnson Singers began to make a meager living, earning from $1.50 to $8 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|1.50|1930}} to ${{Inflation|US|8|1930}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) a night. Steady work became a second priority to singing. Jackson began calling herself a "fish and bread singer", working for herself and God.<ref>Jackson and Wylie, pp. 51–59.</ref> She made her first recordings in 1931, singles that she intended to sell at [[National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.|National Baptist Convention]] meetings, though she was mostly unsuccessful.<ref name="goreau51-61"/>{{efn|These recordings have been lost.}} But as her audiences grew each Sunday, she began to get hired as a soloist to sing at funerals and political rallies for [[Louis B. Anderson]] and [[William L. Dawson (politician)|William L. Dawson]]. In 1932, on Dawson's request, she sang for [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s presidential campaign. She had become the only professional gospel singer in Chicago. Sometimes she made $10 a week ({{Inflation|US|10|1932|fmt=eq}}) in what historian Michael Harris calls "an almost unheard-of professionalization of one's sacred calling".<ref>Harris, p. 261.</ref>

As opportunities came to her, an extraordinary moral code directed Jackson's career choices. Her lone vice was frequenting movie and [[vaudeville]] theaters until her grandfather visited one summer and had a stroke while standing in the sun on a Chicago street. Jackson pleaded with God to spare him, swearing she would never go to a theater again. He survived and Jackson kept her promise, refusing to attend as a patron and rejecting opportunities to sing in theaters for her entire career. She furthermore vowed to sing gospel exclusively despite intense pressure. In 1935, Jackson met Isaac "Ike" Hockenhull, a chemist working as a postman during the Depression. Impressed with his attention and manners, Jackson married him after a year-long courtship. Hockenhull's mother gave the couple 200 formulas for homemade hair and skincare products she had sold door to door. Hockenhull and Jackson made cosmetics in their kitchen and she sold jars when she traveled. It was not steady work, and the cosmetics did not sell well. At one point Hockenhull had been laid off and he and Jackson had less than a dollar between them. He saw that auditions for ''[[The Swing Mikado]]'', a jazz-flavored retelling of the [[The Mikado|Gilbert and Sullivan opera]], were taking place. He demanded she go; the role would pay $60 a week ({{Inflation|US|60|1936|fmt=eq}}). Plus, he saw no value in singing gospel. He did not consider it artful. He had repeatedly urged her to get formal training and put her voice to better use. She refused and they argued about it often. Wracked by guilt, she attended the audition, later calling the experience "miserable" and "painful". When she got home she learned that the role was offered to her, but when Hockenhull informed her he also secured a job she immediately rejected the role to his disbelief. She furthermore turned down [[Louis Armstrong]] and [[Earl Hines|Earl "Fatha" Hines]] when they offered her jobs singing with their bands.<ref name="jackson70-79">Jackson and Wylie, pp. 70–79.</ref><ref>Goreau, pp. 66–80.</ref>

In 1937, Jackson met [[J. Mayo Williams|Mayo "Ink" Williams]], a music producer who arranged a session with [[Decca Records]]. She recorded four singles: "God's Gonna Separate the Wheat From the Tares", "You Sing On, My Singer", "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears", and "Keep Me Every Day". Jackson told neither her husband or Aunt Hannah, who shared her house, of this session. The records' sales were weak, but were distributed to jukeboxes in New Orleans, one of which Jackson's entire family huddled around in a bar, listening to her again and again. Decca said they would record her further if she sang blues, and once more Jackson refused.<ref>Goreau, pp. 71–77.</ref><ref>Marovich, p. 123.</ref>

The Johnson Singers folded in 1938, but as the Depression lightened Jackson saved some money, earned a beautician's license from [[Madam C. J. Walker]]'s school, and bought a beauty salon in the heart of Bronzeville. It was almost immediately successful and the center of gospel activity. Singers, male and female, visited while Jackson cooked for large groups of friends and customers on a two-burner stove in the rear of the salon. It was located across the street from [[Pilgrim Baptist Church]], where Thomas Dorsey had become music director. Dorsey proposed a series of performances to promote his music and her voice and she agreed. They toured off and on until 1951. It was regular and, they felt, necessary work. Dorsey accompanied Jackson on piano, often writing songs specifically for her. His background as a blues player gave him extensive experience improvising and he encouraged Jackson to develop her skills during their performances by handing her lyrics and playing chords while she created melodies, sometimes performing 20 or more songs this way. She was able to emote and relate to audiences profoundly well; her goal was to "wreck" a church, or cause a state of spiritual pandemonium among the audience which she did consistently. At one event, in an ecstatic moment Dorsey jumped up from the piano and proclaimed, "Mahalia Jackson is the Empress of gospel singers! She's the ''Empress''! The Empress!!"<ref>Goreau, p. 91.</ref><ref name="Broughton, p. 54">Broughton, p. 54.</ref>

A constant worker and a shrewd businesswoman, Jackson became the choir director at St. Luke Baptist Church. She bought a building as a landlord, then found the salon so successful she had to hire help to care for it when she traveled on weekends. On tour, she counted heads and tickets to ensure she was being paid fairly.{{efn|Jackson was arrested twice, in 1949 and 1952, in disputes with promoters when she felt she was not being given her contractually obligated payments. The first instance Jackson was released without penalty, but the second time she was ordered to pay the court – taking place in the back of a hardware store – $1,000 ({{Inflation|US|1000|1952|fmt=eq|r=-3}}). (Goreau, pp. 113–123, 152–158.)}} What she was able to earn and save was done in spite of Hockenhull. A compulsive gambler, he took home a large payout asking Jackson to hide it so he would not gamble it. She laid the stash in flat bills under a rug assuming he would never look there, then went to a weekend performance in Detroit. When she returned, she realized he had found it and used it to buy a race horse. In 1943, he brought home a new [[Buick]] for her that he promptly stopped paying for. She paid for it entirely, then learned he had used it as collateral for a loan when she saw it being [[Repossession|repossessed]] in the middle of the day on the busiest street in Bronzeville. They divorced amicably.<ref name="jackson70-79"/><ref name="Goreau 96-103">Goreau, pp. 96–103.</ref>