**This Mahalia Jackson stamp is a part of the Legends of American Music series. Make sure to check out my hub page dedicated to this long-running and important project of the United States Postal Service.
The Legends of American Music stamp series was an important project for many reasons. In addition to celebrating truly original art forms, it also highlighted the contributions of many women and people of color. In fact, the R&B singer Dinah Washington became the first Black woman on a U. S. postage stamp in 1993 as part of the Legends series. The series would also include Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, and many others. Among that group was one of the greatest gospel singers of all time, the fantastic Mahalia Jackson.
Mahalia Jackson
Jackson was born in 1911 in New Orleans. Her family were devout Baptists and very strictly observed the sabbath day. They did not play cards, drink or go to bars, or listen to jazz. Mahalia began singing in the children’s choir at the age of four and would later recall that the church music had a big influence on her own career. Her mother died when she was five and she moved in with her aunt. Even as a child, Mahlia worked scrubbing floors or making moss mattresses. The church became a second home for her to escape the grief and poor living conditions of her household. She would go to church on Wednesday evenings, Friday nights, and all day Sundays. She dropped out of school at age ten as she needed to contribute more to the economics of the household.
By the age of twelve, Mahalia had a big voice and joined the junior choir at church. Although primarily she sang protestant hymns at church, she could not help to be influenced by the richness of New Orlean’s music that surrounded her. Her cousins played her blues records of singers such as Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, and Ma Rainey. At the same time, Jackson was fascinated by the jazz music of the second line funeral processions she witnessed in her neighborhood.
Musical Career
At the age of seventeen, Jackson moved to Chicago to live with other aunts there. Nearly immediately, she joined the Greater Salem Baptist Church and was asked to be in the choir and in a special quartet. Known as the “Johnson Singers” they were the first Black gospel group in Chicago. They began singing at socials and special Friday night programs.
She met the great gospel and blues musicians Thomas A. Dorsey and became a student, training with him to learn to control her large voice for maximum effect. He recruited Jackson to help him sell sheet music versions of his gospel compositions. She would stand on street corners singing his music, while they sold copies for ten cents a page. While a humble beginning, it was the start of the Chicago gospel blues style.
Between the Johnson singers and her association with Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson began to build a reputation, especially as gospel music became more important to the Black churches in Chicago, and eventually throughout the country. In 1937, she recorded four singles, which did not sell well but did have national distribution. Labels wanted her to sing the Blues, but out of religious conviction, she refused. She kept toiling along with her musical career, slowly building a following that took her beyond Chicago.
Her breakout took place in 1946 when she came to New York City to perform at the Golden Gate Ballroom in Harlem. Art Freeman, a scout for Apollo Records, heard her and got the label to sign her to a four record contract. One of her songs, “Move On Up a Little Higher” was picked up by “Studs” Terkel in Chicago who played it on the radio. It sold 50,000 copies in Chicago and, following this success more than two million nationwide. It was number two on Billboard, the first time a gospel song charted. Instantly, she became a star. She was asked to be the official soloist of the National Baptist Convention and to campaign for Harry Truman.
Legacy
Jackson was integral to the development and popularity of gospel music, especially in Black churches across the country. Over her career of more than forty years, she sold more than twenty two million records worldwide. She was popular with both Black and white audiences, and was one of the first artists to integrate concert halls across the south. She had a profound influence on subsequent female vocalists and Black musicians across genres and is now considered one of the most influential singers of the twentieth century.
The Stamp
The postage stamp was one of four in honor of female gospel singers including Clara Ward, Roberta Martin, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe in addition to Jackson. Howard Paine of Delaplane, Virginia was the designer and Gary Kelly of Cedar Falls, Iowa was the illustrator of the set. The stamps were issued on July 15, 1998 in New Orleans, Louisiana. All of the stamps are in a similar style, showing a close up headshot of the singers. The portraits are not photographs, but paintings. They are a bit soft in their details and to my eye they border a little on cartoon illustrations, though not in a humorous or caricatured way. Learn more about this series here.
