GospelCity Black History Month Salute to Gospel Artists

Plagued with a series of health issues including complications from diabetes, Mahalia Jackson succumbed to a heart attack on January 27, 1972. The bulk of her vast fortune (for a gospel singer) was shrewdly distributed to the people who cared for her when she was a poor washerwoman and day worker and to the few relatives and friends who loved her for her.

Rev. James Cleveland

"Both seen and unseen powers join to drive my soul astray, but with God's word, a sword of mine, I'll overcome someday…"

Some of the most prolific and powerful lyrics in the modern day history of gospel music were written by Reverend James Cleveland. Seventeen years after his death, choirs worldwide and gospel singers continue to laud him by including at least one of his songs in their repertoires. If Mahalia Jackson was the rock star of gospel music, then James Cleveland was the Oscar winner as the first gospel artist to have his star placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The Chicago native started his illustrious career as a singer, then pianist and choir director. Cleveland’s reputation gained him an enormous amount of fame outside of local church circles, and ultimately, Albertina Walker & The Caravans hired him as an arranger/producer, songwriter and backup singer. Miss Walker is also responsible for providing James Cleveland with his first opportunity to record. During those years, he also worked with organist, Billy Preston, before he would become founder of his own choir, The Southern California Community Choir, as well as his own church that had thousands of members before he died.

He was the co-founder, with Albertina Walker, of the Gospel Music Workshop of America (GMWA), which enhanced his influence in the gospel music industry worldwide. Cleveland’s influence remains to this day.

In 1991, Cleveland died of heart failure in Culver City, California. The concept of the mass choir continues to flourish under his influence, albeit posthumously.