BY MAHALIA JACKSON AS TOLD TO GRANVILLE WHITE

G.W.:  How you doin', Mahalia?

M.J.:  Well, pretty good.

G.W.:  That's good. You see I brought you the new single that we just released from the album--Take My Hand Precious Lord and the flip side We Shall Overcome.

M.J.:  Yes, Lord.

G.W.:  What was this you were telling me about when you recorded "Precious Lord?"

M.J.:  Well, you know I had just begun to work with Columbia and I wanted to make the old-time songs like I sing in the church, and they wanted me to make a lot of high-class stuff I wasn't familiar with. When I met George Avakian, an A&R man, I asked him to let me make this song because this is one of the greatest songs that Professor' Dorsey, Thomas Dorsey, had written. I had been singing his songs for about 25 years then, and I wanted to make this album because it was like a prayer to me, that "Precious Lord." You know when you have trouble in your mind and you don't know what to do--then you just look up to the Precious Lord to take your hand. There's nothing else to do--l need You to lead me and guide me. And when I got through recording that song, I just sat down and cried because they had let me make one of the types of songs that I was familiar with and had been singing in the church. Incidentally, this was Dr. King's favorite song, and New Year's Eve 1967-into-1968 at Miss Maybelle's right down the street--we were all there. I sang that song for him. You know, Dr. King could sing himself and he sang to me all night. Then the whistles started and we all ran to different spots waiting far the New Year to come in--for God to take my hand and lead me on through this year.

G.W.:  Do you remember your first meeting with Dr. King?

M.J.:  Well, I was the first gospel singer Dr. Abernathy called to come to Mobile, Alabama, when they were in the bus boycott. He said that they wanted to raise money to help get transportation for their people to go to work. That was my first meeting. But I knew Dr. King's father and mother from the Baptist Convention. I knew them years ago but I hadn't met their son. He was a young man, and that's where I met him, down in Alabama during the boycott--I was the first one to go down there and help to raise money.

G.W.:  I know that you were one of his favorites, if not the favorite, among the entertainers because in every one of his benefits you were always there. I, too, recall one in which Al Benson and a few others were down--oh, yes, Aretha! Our friend Aretha Franklin was down--she sings "Precious Lord."

M.J.:  Yes, she does; she breaks the house down. It really was something. It seems as if that song really has significance with people that are oppressed. When you can't do anything else, Good God, that's God's time to lead His children on. He knows, believe me.

G.W.:  Did Dr. King like other kinds of music--like classical--well, you know--like some of the rock and roll or rhythm and blues?

M.J.:  You know I'm so fogey, I wouldn't know that. You know I never thought of Dr. King as an ordinary man.

G.W.:  I don't think anyone thought of him as ordinary.

M.J.:  No, I never did either.

G.W.:  And it's amazing how this one man has changed the whole United States.

M.J.:  There hasn't been a man like that since Jesus.

G.W.:  I'd have to agree with you.

M.J.:  And God had to send that man to wake up His people. And many called him Moses. Whatever name they called Him, He was sent from God. But I know that whatever place we would be--when I used to travel with him--he would tell me what songs to sing before he would get up and preach. And at the march in Washington, my manager kept telling me to sing something more lively. But Martin whispered to me, "Mahalia" (and you could ask Leontyne Price's husband--we were all in Washington), "sing for me before I speak--'I been 'buked and I been scorned.' " That at the foot of Lincoln in Washington, D.C.!

G.W.:  I see one of the titles in the album is Rock of Ages.

M.J.:  Yes, he loved that. We sang it New Year's Eve, too.

G.W.:  Right. And some of the others--He's Got the Whole World in His Hands, and one of my favorites, Just a Closer Walk With Thee.

M.J.:  Yes, he loved them all. That New Year's night we just kept on singing and kept on praying. And I remember two years ago, right here in my home, my pianist, Mildred, was playing and the people were just laughing and talking and singing. Me, I didn't know if she had heard it like I heard it. Martin said, "Father, why? Why me, Father?" Just like that. Honest to God! So I asked Mildred had she heard it, and she had. Martin knew two years ago--you know God talks to His children--and He tells you--yes, he knew! And that's why when he said he had been up on the mountain God will lead him along and get him prepared--to take him back home and put him in His bosom. Because he had been scarred and he had been talked about. And the most precious thing--memory--that I got, some of the ministers right here in Chicago refused to let that man come in here. And I'd like to say it because it's terrible how some people try to kill Christian influence and they don't know they come from God. They refused and Martin called me and said, "Mahalia, there's only one person can bring us into Chicago." I took off two months and worked without a dime and turned that money over to him. I remember there was something peculiar about that man that I felt in my soul. It just looked like I always felt that he was in a hurry to do something and had to leave.

G.W.:  Yes, that was the case. He was always in a hurry, do something. I recall meeting him the first time. I was on my way to Atlanta, Georgia. I was sitting next to him when he found out I knew you. He really got to talking and he was thrilled. It's just amazing what an influence you had on him.

M.J.:  He never forgot names or faces and he wasn't a person you had to be introduced to all the time. That's what you call real common sense, real education. You know, some folks that have got education, like Martin, are pure fools. They forget the small people. But he was so loving, it was unbelievable.

G.W.:  I believe there's a biblical saying that says, "Letters sometimes killeth."

M.J.:  Yes, yes, but he had the grace of God in his arms--that he did, that he did.

G.W.:  There are two other songs in here that seem to have been indicative of how he felt--How I Got Over and If I Can Help Somebody. That last song I think is one of his most favorite.

M.J.:  Well, I sang that the last time, If I Can Help Somebody, when me and Belafonte was here about two years ago. We had the program and I sang that. I recall that I wasn't too well. Then I sang How I Got Over. Once we were in Pittsburgh where they had this big thing with about nineteen or twenty thousand people. There for Martin I sang How I Got Over, and he liked it then. He was just a man that loved any God's spiritual message.

G.W.:  Again it is just amazing what an impact this man had on the American people and on the world. It was just a tragic thing. It was a sad thing. Even so, I think he accomplished what he set out to do even in death.

M.J.:  God planned it to me like this. God always sends us a comforter, and every time the Negro gets despaired he can think about a great Negro in his time that was unafraid--that was a great leader. God always sends us a comforter--we can follow in his footsteps, like we follow in Jesus' footsteps. You understand? We can just look back and say our hearts are not afraid. Look what Dr. King did for us. Look at the Southern Christian leadership and the many people who have helped the Southern Christian leadership. Look how the Lord touched their hearts. You know, God can pull the spear of hate out of people's hearts if He wants to. But God had let Martin do just what He wanted him to do.

G.W.:  Just amazing! As I said before, I noticed that you and so many of the other entertainers, Belafonte and Aretha Franklin and others contributed a lot of your time and a lot of your money toward the cause. Is any one of those presentations especially memorable to you?

M.J.:  Being with Martin? Oh I have so many wonderful memories with Dr. King because with all the things that were on his mind and trying to get us free and trying to get doors open for us--he still could laugh. He still could smile. He still had a smile for the world and he could tell us little jokes and things.

G.W.:  He was a human being.

M.J.:  Honest, he was just wonderful and I often thought of him--man, he got the weight of the world almost like Jesus on him and he still smiled and laughed at somebody else's joke and everything else. And after some of the riots he'd come back and say, "They like to got me this time," and laugh about it!

 

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Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   Mahalia Jackson  

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.