Editing Mahalia Jackson (section)

== Columbia Records and civil rights activism (1954–1963) ==

In 1954, Jackson learned that Berman had been withholding [[Royalty payment|royalties]] and had allowed her contract with Apollo to expire. [[Mitch Miller]] offered her a $50,000-a-year ({{Inflation|US|50000|1954|fmt=eq|r=-4}}) four-year contract, and Jackson became the first gospel artist to sign with [[Columbia Records]], a much larger company with the ability to promote her nationally. Miller attempted to make her repertoire more appealing to white listeners, asking her to record ballads and classical songs, but again she refused. "Rusty Old Halo" became her first Columbia single, and ''DownBeat'' declared Jackson "the greatest spiritual singer now alive".<ref>Goreau, p. 192.</ref> Columbia worked with a local radio affiliate in Chicago to create a half hour radio program, ''The Mahalia Jackson Show''. Although it got an overwhelmingly positive reception and producers were eager to syndicate it nationally, it was cut to ten minutes long, then canceled. She appeared on a local television program, also titled ''The Mahalia Jackson Show'', which again got a positive reception but was canceled for lack of sponsors. Despite white people beginning to attend her shows and sending fan letters, executives at [[CBS]] were concerned they would lose advertisers from Southern states who objected to a program with a black person as the primary focus.<ref>Goreau, pp. 177–206.</ref><ref name="burford 279-318">Burford 2019, pp. 279–318.</ref>

{{quote box
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| quote =
If they're Christians, how in the world can they object to me singing hymns? How in the world can they take offense to that? In the name of the Lord, what kind of people could feel that way? 
| source = – Mahalia Jackson<ref>Jackson and Wylie, p. 95.</ref>
}}

Jackson attracted the attention of the [[William Morris Agency]], a firm that promoted her by booking her in large concert halls and television appearances with [[Arthur Godfrey]], [[Dinah Shore]], [[Bing Crosby]], and [[Perry Como]] in the 1950s. Her reverence and upbeat, positive demeanor made her desirable to progressive producers and hosts eager to feature a black person on television. She appeared at the [[1956 Democratic National Convention]], silencing a rowdy hall of attendees with "I See God". Miller, who was in attendance, was awed by it, noting "there wasn't a dry eye in the house when she got through".<ref>Goreau, p. 215.</ref> Jackson broke into films playing a missionary in ''[[St. Louis Blues (1958 film)|St. Louis Blues]]'' (1958), and a funeral singer in ''[[Imitation of Life (1959 film)|Imitation of Life]]'' (1959). As demand for her rose, she traveled extensively, performing 200 dates a year for ten years. She and her entourage of singers and accompanists toured deeper into the South, encountering difficulty finding safe, clean places to sleep, eat, and buy gas due to [[Jim Crow laws]]. Sometimes they had to sleep in Jackson's car, a [[Cadillac]] she had purchased to make long trips more comfortable. Jackson remembered, "The looks of anger at the sight of us colored folks sitting in a nice car were frightening to see... It got so we were living on bags of fresh fruit during the day and driving half the night, and I was so exhausted by the time I was supposed to sing, I was almost dizzy."<ref>Jackson and Wylie, p. 97.</ref> Jackson began to gain weight. She also developed peculiar habits regarding money. As a black woman, Jackson found it often impossible to cash checks when away from Chicago. Her contracts therefore demanded she be paid in cash, often forcing her to carry tens of thousands of dollars in suitcases and in her undergarments.<ref name="goreau210-226">Goreau, pp. 207–226.</ref>

Each event in her career and personal life broke another racial barrier. She often asked ushers to allow white and black people to sit together, sometimes asking the audiences to integrate themselves by telling them that they were all Christian brothers and sisters. After years of receiving complaints about being loud when she practiced in her apartment, even in the building she owned, Jackson bought a house in the all-white Chatham Village neighborhood of Chicago. When this news spread, she began receiving death threats. The day she moved in her front window was shot. Jackson asked [[Richard J. Daley|Richard Daley]], the mayor of Chicago, for help and Daley ordered police presence outside her house for a year. A few months later, Jackson appeared live on the television special ''[[Wide Wide World]]'' singing Christmas carols from Mount Moriah, her childhood church in New Orleans. The broadcast earned excellent reviews, and Jackson received congratulatory telegrams from across the nation. Yet the next day she was unable to get a taxi or shop along [[Canal Street, New Orleans|Canal Street]].<ref name="goreau210-226"/><ref>Jackson and Wylie, pp. 103–131.</ref>{{efn|All the white families in Chatham Village moved out within two years. (Goreau, pp. 248–256.)}}

While attending the National Baptist Convention in 1956, Jackson met [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] and [[Ralph Abernathy]], both ministers emerging as organizers protesting segregation. Jackson often sang to support worthy causes for no charge, such as raising money to buy a church an organ, robes for choirs, or sponsoring missionaries. She extended this to civil rights causes, becoming the most prominent gospel musician associated with King and the civil rights movement. She raised money for the [[United Negro College Fund]] and sang at the [[Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom|Prayer Pilgrimage Breakfast]] in 1957. She later stated she felt God had especially prepared King "with the education and the warmth of spirit to do His work".<ref>Jackson and Wylie, p. 128</ref><ref>Marovich, p. 299.</ref> Motivated  by her sincere appreciation that civil rights protests were being organized within churches and its participants inspired by hymns, she traveled to [[Montgomery, Alabama]] to sing in support of the [[Montgomery bus boycott|ongoing bus boycott]].<ref>Jackson and Wylie, p. 181.</ref> She and Mildred Falls stayed at Abernathy's house in a room that was bombed four months later. After hearing that black children in Virginia were unable to attend school due to [[Desegregation in the United States|integration conflicts]], she threw them an ice cream party from Chicago, singing to them over a telephone line attached to a [[public address system]]. She similarly supported a group of black sharecroppers in Tennessee facing eviction for voting.<ref>Goreau, pp. 256–259.</ref><ref>Branch, p. 1209.</ref>

[[File:MahaliaJackson.jpg|upright=1.35|thumb|Jackson in the [[Concertgebouw, Amsterdam|Concertgebouw]], [[Amsterdam]], April 1961]]

As gospel music became more popular – primarily due to her influence – singers began appearing at non-religious venues as a way to spread a Christian message to nonbelievers. Jackson appeared at the [[Newport Jazz Festival]] in 1957 and 1958, and in the latter's [[concert film]], ''[[Jazz on a Summer's Day]]'' (1959).<ref>Boyer, p. 188.</ref> Her continued television appearances with [[Steve Allen]], [[Red Skelton]], [[Milton Berle]], and [[Jimmy Durante]] kept her in high demand. She toured Europe again in 1961 with incredible success, mobbed in several cities and needing police escorts. All dates in Germany were sold out weeks in advance. In [[Essen]], she was called to give so many encores that she eventually changed into her street clothes and the stage hands removed the microphone. Still she sang one more song. The highlight of her trip was visiting the [[Holy Land]], where she knelt and prayed at [[Calvary]].<ref>Goreau, pp. 289–309.</ref><ref>Jackson and Wylie, pp. 155–172.</ref>

When King was arrested and sentenced to four months hard labor, presidential candidate [[John F. Kennedy]] intervened, earning Jackson's loyal support. She began campaigning for him, saying: "I feel that I'm a part of this man's hopes. He lifts my spirit and makes me feel a part of the land I live in."<ref>Jackson and Wylie, p. 139.</ref><ref>Branch, pp. 1122–1147.</ref> Her clout and loyalty to Kennedy earned her an invitation to sing "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]" at his inaugural ball in 1961. Months later, she helped raise $50,000 for the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]]. Jackson lent her support to King and other ministers in 1963 after their successful [[Birmingham campaign|campaign to end segregation in Birmingham]] by holding a fundraising rally to pay for protestors' bail. By this time she was a personal friend of King and his wife [[Coretta Scott King|Coretta]], often hosting them when they visited Chicago, and spending Thanksgiving with their family in Atlanta. King considered Jackson's house a place that he could truly relax.<ref>Jackson and Wylie, pp. 173–185.</ref><ref name="goreau418-426">Goreau, pp. 418–426.</ref> She appeared at the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] to sing "I've Been 'Buked and I've Been Scorned" on King's request, then "[[How I Got Over (song)|How I Got Over]]".{{efn| King delivered his speech as written until a point near the end when he paused and went off text and began preaching. In the church spirit, Jackson lent her support from her seat behind him, shouting, "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin!" just before he began his most famous segment of the "[[I Have A Dream]]" speech. Branch writes that King later said he grasped at the "first run of oratory" that came to him, not knowing if Jackson's words ever reached him. (Branch, p. 2761–2763.)}} Three months later, while rehearsing for an appearance on [[Danny Kaye]]'s television show, Jackson was inconsolable upon learning that Kennedy had been [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|assassinated]], believing that he died fighting for the rights of black Americans.<ref>Jackson and Wylie, pp. 186–205.</ref>