Brother John Sellers was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1924. Sellers started off his career as a toddler, watching and listening to bluesmen on the streets of Clarksdale. By the age of 5, Sellers was already singing and dancing in tents that his local church would set up. As a young boy he was separated from his family, and at the age of 10 he was living on his own when he was discovered by Mahalia Jackson. Mahalia could sense his raw talent, but she also was a lot of herself in him. 

Just like Sellers, Mahalia's own childhood was filled with hardships. Her parents, Charity Clark and Johnny Jackson, were never married, and when Mahalia was just 5 years old her mother became ill and passed away. She was forced to live with her strict aunt in New Orleans and faced 10 years of abuses before she would leave for Chicago. Mahalia emphasized John's story and potential, so she decided to take him under her wing as a mentor.

She moved him up to Chicago, where the pair would regularly collaborate together. As a natural performer, Sellers became quite good at capturing the hearts of his crowds. John would fill in for Mahalia at some of her concerts if she could not perform, and eventually the pair went on tour together in the 1940s. By 1950, Sellers would leave Chicago and move to the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. He performed at the bar “Folk City”, a location where musicians like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel got their starts. Sellers became a regular there. In 1958, while performing a song, Sellers was noticed by Alvin Ailey, a young and promising dancer who had opened his own dance studio a decade earlier. Alvin was impressed by Sellers and his singing, and the pair began to collaborate together. Their ballet “Revelations”, created in 1960 would go on to become one of the most recognized and reproduced ballets in modern history. 

Sellers worked with other famous artists, starring in the Broadway production of “Tambourines to Glory” by Harlem poet Langston Hughes and performing a touring show in Europe with Big Bill Broonzy. He continued to work with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, even after Alvin’s death in 1989. Sellers passed away in Manhattan in 1999. Sadly, at the time of his death, he was in a legal battle with the dance company over royalties and copyrights in regards to “Revelations”.