Our life, your entertainment!: We Are Black History!

Friday, February 4, 2011

We Are Black History!

( Written By AJ Mason )
Mahalia Jackson is our great, great, great, great, great Aunt on my Mom's side.We're glad to know that this wonderful, talented, and beautiful woman is in my family. She was known as "The Queen of Gospel". It's good to know that she was singing for the Lord and that she was a civil rights activist. The person that reminds us the most of Mahalia is our youngest sister Aniah Mason. She has the same drive and talent for singing just like Mahalia did. All she has to do is pick up her toy microphone, make up a song off the spot, and sing away.She looks so much like my great Grandma (Dollie Ruth Jackson) who was also a gospel singer in our church. Just like Aunt Mahalia my Grandma past away from diabetes complications and cancer, however Aunt Mahalia didn't have cancer. Learning this inspired me to continue to persue my dreams in singing. My Mom always made sure that we celebrate Black History month. So when I heard that Mahalia Jackson was our blood and one of the most greatest singers, why not do a report on her? She starred in one of my parents favorite movies: "Imitation of Life" Here is more information about Mahalia Jackson:

October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an African-American gospel singer. Possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel".Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world, and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist; entertainer Harry Belafonte called her "the single most powerful black woman in the United States" . She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records ) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen "golds"—million-sellers.
Born as Mahalia Jackson and nicknamed "Halie", Jackson grew up in the Black Pearl section of the Carollton neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana . The three-room dwelling on Pitt Street housed thirteen people and a dog. This included Little Mahala (named after her aunt, Mahala Clark-Paul whom the family called Aunt Duke), her brother Roosevelt Hunter, whom they called Peter, and her mother Charity Clark, who worked as both a maid and a laundress. Several aunts and cousins lived in the house as well. Aunt Mahala was given the nickname "Duke" after proving herself the undisputed “boss” of the family. The extended family (the Clarks) consisted of her mother's siblings - Isabell, Mahala, Boston, Porterfield, Hannah, Alice, Rhoda, Bessie, their children, grandchildren and patriarch Rev. Paul Clark, a former slave. Mahalia's father, John A. Jackson, Sr. was a stevedore (dockworker) and a barber who later became a Baptist minister. He fathered four other children besides Mahalia - Wilmon (older) and then Yvonne, Pearl and Johnny, Jr. (by his marriage shortly after Halie's birth). Her father's sister, Jeanette Jackson-Burnett, and husband, Josie, were vaudeville entertainers.
When she was born Halie suffered from genu varum , or "bowed legs." The doctors wanted to perform surgery by breaking Halie's legs, but one of the resident aunts opposed it. So Halie's mother would rub her legs down with greasy dishwater. The condition never stopped young Halie from performing her dance steps for the white woman her mother and Aunt Bell cleaned house for.
Mahalia was five when her mother, Charity, died, leaving her family to decide who would raise Halie and her brother. Aunt Duke assumed this responsibility, and the children were forced to work from sunup to sundown. Aunt Duke would always inspect the house using the "white glove" method. If the house was not cleaned properly, Halie was beaten. If one of the other relatives was unable to do their chores, or clean at their job, Halie or one of her cousins was expected to perform that particular task. School was hardly an option. Halie loved to sing and church is where she loved to sing the most. Halie’s Aunt Bell told her that one day she would sing in front of royalty, a prediction that would eventually come true. Mahalia Jackson began her singing career at the local Mount Mariah Baptist Church. She was baptized in Mississippi by Mt. Moriah's pastor, the Rev. E. D. Lawrence, then went back to the church to "receive the right hand of fellowship."