“How can you sing of Amazing Grace? How can you sing prayerfully of heaven and earth and all God’s wonders without using your hands? My hands, my feet, I throw my whole body to say all that is within me.”
Mahalia Jackson, ‘Queen of Gospel’ singer (1911 – 1972), born on this day.
It was Mahalia Jackson who sparked Martin Luther King Jr’s ‘I have a dream speech’ by calling out to him as he paused, “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” At this, Martin Luther King abandoned his notes and began to speak from the heart, delivering one of the most powerful speeches in human history. In a letter after the event he described her as “a blessing to me and a blessing to Negroes who have learned through her not to be ashamed of their heritage.”
King Edward Street Chapel 