GospelCity Black History Month Salute to Gospel Artists

The four individuals profiled in this edition of Gospel City’s celebration of Black History Month are innovators and pioneers in gospel music. Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, The Clark Sisters and Kirk Franklin have all left indelible marks on one of the truly original African American genres of music. Each of them has inspired generations of gospel music enthusiasts from listeners to performers with their gifts. And without question, each has earned a place in the history of their people and in the history of the world.

Mahalia Jackson

"When you sing gospel you have a feeling there is a cure for what's wrong."

Black women of all ages remember Mahalia Jackson singing in the movie, Imitation of Life. With her deep contralto, she moaned, “Soon we will be done, trouble of the world…I’m going home to live with God,” and there wasn’t a dry eye or unconvicted soul listening. The woman who grew up in poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana was a born entertainer who surrendered her gifts to God, after an aunt told her prophetically, “You will sing in front of royalty.” And she did.

Mahalia Jackson is unquestionably gospel music’s first superstar entertainer with crossover appeal that would land her on mainstream television shows during an era that was not particularly fond of black images or music that had an overtly “black” sound. She was an astute businesswoman who performed in venues as grand as the opera halls of Europe to Carnegie Hall to churches. Her business acumen preceded her and often she would not perform unless the monetary arrangements were complete and to her satisfaction. Promoters had to show her the money.

The Queen of Gospel Music would discover singer, actress Della Reese and mentor a young Aretha Franklin. She was also a staunch supporter of the civil rights movement and the works of the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Very often she would be called upon to open his sermons and/or speeches with Precious Lord (Take My Hand) and other standards written by Thomas Dorsey.

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.

The Clark Sisters

"Can't you see the signs of the judgment in the air… Can't you see destruction is everywhere … People, you better get yourselves ready for God is soon to come …"

Dr. Mattie Moss Clark is credited as a gospel music genius, having been the mentor and early influence of many gospel artists, her death stunned and saddened the gospel music industry. However, she bequeathed a gift, actually four gifts, to her fans – her daughters, The Clark Sisters.

Twinkie, Jacky, Dorinda and Karen along with a fifth sister, Denise began performing with their mother in the 1960s around their native Detroit, Michigan. In 1973, the sisters recorded their first album, Jesus Has a Lot to Give, which added to their growing popularity. Yet, it was in the early 1980s that The Clark Sisters recorded and released the first gospel song to partially sample a secular song, Stevie Wonder’s Master Blaster, and that song is the now classic, You Brought the Sunshine. They almost instantly became household names, and they even appeared on the Grammy Awards, shaking the establishment with their choreography and gumption to bring some rump shaking to gospel music. Sunshine was a serious crossover hit for the sisters, and a few years later, Denise would leave to become a minister and start a family.

Always stylish and contemporary, The Clark Sisters have wowed audiences with their amazing vocal abilities and fashion choices. They would also record solo projects and recently swept the Grammy Awards with two wins in 2008. Nineteen albums later, The Clark Sisters continue to bring sunshine with their voices and will always be gospel music’s royalty.

Kirk Franklin

"We're used to people getting caught. We're not used to people exposing themselves."

In 1993, gospel music traditionalists were stunned, probably as stunned as they were with The Clark Sisters’ You Brought the Sunshine and Tramaine Hawkins’ Fall Down. Some couldn’t understand why a young Kirk Franklin talked so much over the choir and others were not amused that his song was popular on gospel, pop and R&B stations. And then there was the coolness coupled with the dancing…but they got over it and that same young man, now a music industry veteran, continues to excite fans with his innovations, just like he did with The Reason Why We Sing.

Houston native, Kirk Franklin, has recorded with the best in gospel (Yolanda Adams and Donnie McClurkin) and the best in secular entertainment (Bono, Mary J. Blige and R. Kelly). His stellar career has yet to slow down and with his recent release, The Fight of My Life, maybe it shouldn’t.

Kirk Franklin, the choir boy who was taunted by his peers for being wrapped up in the church, has always been in the fight of his life. The product of a teen mom, he was lured by some serious vices like smoking weed and drinking, and the thing that he feared the most came upon him – teen fatherhood. If his song lyrics reveal a pattern of mercy and grace in their content, it’s only because Franklin revels in having received much of both from God.

A few years ago, Franklin appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his addiction to pornography, a gutsy move. He exposed this truth to a new audience and instead of alienating fans; Kirk earned more with his transparency and boldness in letting everyone know that Christians have struggles too.