Fifty years after her death, friends and fans including Al Sharpton assess the legacy of a singer who took gospel mainstream and became ‘as big as Beyoncé’
In 2018, following a bruising divorce, the British singer Sarah Brown was “broke, financially, emotionally and spiritually – I had nothing to live for”. At her lowest ebb, she turned to a voice that had given her crucial guidance and succour when she was a child: Mahalia Jackson, the pre-eminent gospel star of the 20th century.
“Pop music was banned in my home growing up,” Brown says. “But my father owned records by Jim Reeves, Aretha Franklin and Mahalia Jackson. And Mahalia’s voice opened my spirit up. I grew up in a volatile home – my father beat my mum, he beat my older brother. I was seven years old, living in fear.” But in Jackson’s volcanic, resonant, impassioned voice, Brown found much-needed shelter and catharsis. “I was able to scream along with her, and release that fear. Mahalia helped release me.”
