Mahalia Jackson was born in a Negro shack in New Orleans in 1911 and went to work as a washerwoman at 13. Even earlier, the thing she loved best was to sing in the congregation of her Baptist church. "All around me I could hear the feet tapping and the hands clapping. That gave me bounce. I liked it much better than being up in the choir singing the anthem. I liked to sing the songs the folks sing which testify to the glory of the Lord—those anthems are too dead and cold."
Mahalia still sings in churches. But her deep, creamy...
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