Mahalia’s identity as the Queen of Gospel cannot be separated from her commitment to community, especially as a champion of civil rights. As a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, she traveled with him to perform at civil rights rallies in cities across the country, from Selma to Washington. She was invited to the 1963 March on Washington, where she performed an old African American spiritual, “I Been ‘Buked and I Been Scorned,” right before Dr. King’s historic speech, “I Have a Dream.” Mahalia honored his last request by singing “Precious Lord” at his funeral just five years later following his assassination. Dr. King called her a blessing to him, and also “a blessing to Negroes who have learned through [her] not to be ashamed of their heritage.”

It was Mahalia’s hope that her popular gospel music could “break down some of the hate and fear that divides the white and black people in this country.” While it is true that her shows drew crowds that seemed racially integrated, her stardom did not insulate her from the struggles for civil rights in her personal life. In Chicago, she had difficulty finding a house and confronted racist violence as she moved to Chatham, which was still an all-white neighborhood. She received threatening phone calls on a daily basis. Her house on 84th and Indiana was shot at. For nearly a year, a police guard had to be stationed outside her doors. But this intimidation did not shake her commitment to the local community. Early in 1958, Edward R. Murrow brought his Person-to-Person interview program to her home, and Mahalia took the opportunity to invite local children over for ice cream and a chance to appear on TV. 

Mahalia lived in her Chatham house until her death in 1972. At the time, she was actually in the process of closing a deal to sell the house to then-banker Roland Burris. The soon-to-be senator met Mahalia during an earlier business arrangement where he helped her to buy a synagogue on 50th Street and Drexel Avenue. The sale was completed and the building would eventually become the headquarters of the Rainbow/ Push Coalition founded by Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Besides Mahalia’s incredible talent as a gospel singer, she must be remembered as a voice for a better world for all peoples.