Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) was an African American singer, predominantly of gospel music, and started singing with her church from age 16. She was active in the Civil Rights movement in the 1950’s and 60’s, and was close friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. until his assassination in 1968.
The collection consists of audiocassette recording of an interview with African American singer Mahalia Jackson. This is a compilation of both the interview and her music, and was aired as a special program entitled “An Easter Sunday with Mahalia Jackson” on April 14, 1968, shortly after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The interview was conducted by John Gilliland, an American radio broadcaster and music documentarian. Ms. Jackson describes her friendship with and provides her personal thoughts about Dr. King. Side B of the cassette has “pop classics” from the 1920’s. The audiocassette (both sides) is approximately 55 minutes long. A listing of the songs is included in the collection folder.
The oral history in this collection was digitized in November 2020, and the audio file retained as an unedited wav file in MASC’s archival digital storage. The digital file contains both sides of the audiocassette tape.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description]
Easter Sunday with Mahalia Jackson Oral History Interview, 1968 April 14 (Cage 5135)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Martha Mullen donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries in 2020 (MS.2020-19).
This collection was processed by Ally Butzke in 2020
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.