“Mahalia Jackson, Moving On Up a Little Higher: The Story of An American Civil Rights Pioneer” by Timothy B. Tyson & Mary D. Williams
c.2026, Liveright $28.99 256 pages
Your actual job is one thing.
It’s what you do with a third of your weekday, what pays the bills and puts food on the table. You might really love the job and consider it a calling but like most folks, you need more Yes, you work, you have a job – but as in the new biography, “Mahalia Jackson, Moving On Up a Little Higher” by Timothy B. Tyson & Mary D. Williams, you also have a passion.
Though she was born in New Orleans in late October of 1911, Mahalia Jackson always kept one foot in a place called Gum Stump, which had once been a labor camp for the enslaved. That was where much of her family lived then, and it’s where her mother was buried when Jackson was a very small girl.
Her father gone, Jackson was raised by her aunts in poverty and abuse, but she persevered and flourished despite racism and other roadblocks. New Orleans’ Black communities steeped her in faith, and Jackson embraced a love of church and gospel music; as her singing talents grew, she began infusing into her songs a bit of her hometown’s jazz, swing, and honky-tonk – much to the consternation of pastors and some elder churchgoers.
When Jackson was twenty years old, her Aunt Hannah took her to Chicago, where her life expanded, as did her career and a whole new interest.
After moving to the Windy City, Jackson had become aware of politics but the effort to get settled meant that she was unable to get involved then. Once she found a church and a community, she and a small group of other of gospel singers began to draw crowds and then, as Jackson’s personal star rose, she threw her new fame behind forward-thinking and Civil-Rights-supporting candidates through her performances.
By 1961, the little girl once from New Orleans was scheduled to sing at the inauguration of a President…
You know how it is: sometimes, seeing something that’s never been hidden, something that’s always been right out in the open, seems like a revelation. That’s the feeling you’ll get when you read “Mahalia Jackson, Moving On Up a Little Higher.”
Though the information here is sometimes recycled throughout chapters, authors Timothy B. Tyson and Mary D. Williams tell a wide story that sets a Civil Rights influencer in the forefront, where she belongs. They show how, despite racism that deeply affected her personal life plus a few scary health issues, Jackson managed to plant her feet firmly in often-forbidden white circles including TV and a popular daily radio show, knowing electronic media would be a great leveler. That, the quiet-out-loud way she left a mark on the Civil Rights Movement, and the fact that her legacy is, until now, little-discussed, is stunning and even a little bit thrilling.
“Mahalia Jackson, Moving on Up a Little Higher” is a book that belongs alongside every other story of the Movement because it can be read by anyone of any age. Try it; it’s one thing you’ll enjoy.
