History is told by white men. Which means they dictate the words we learn and stories we remember. We get dates and names to memorize but seldom mentions of people adjacent to the genius, helping birth it in their own important way. Those are stories we need for many reasons. Not least of which is that those stories help destroy the American myth of meritocracy. Because no one gets to where they were on their own, not even a brilliant man like Dr King.
Mahalia Jackson, a gospel great who was a completely self-taught musician, was known more for her beautiful voice and moving performances than her association with the civil rights movement. But Jackson often sang without charge to support causes that were important to her, raising and giving money quietly. Through her generosity and her deep faith, Jackson met Martin Luther King and became a friend to both he and Coretta Scott King.
On August 28, 1963 Jackson was at the March on Washington to perform, singing to introduce Dr King and then again as he took the stage for his speech. They knew and trusted each other. And on that hot day, Mahalia Jackson, sitting behind Dr King on the podium as he spoke about the Gettysburg address, Jackson felt the need for something more. She called out to him, loudly, "Tell them about the dream, Martin,".
And he does.
Dr King puts aside his prepared notes and picks up a theme from past speeches: his dream and the American dream.
It's hard to imagine today: a speech already in progress, nationally televised, in front of 250,000 people at the largest rally for human rights in US History at that point and someone, a Black woman, interrupts all of it with advice to change direction. The idea fills me with incredulity.
Who was SHE to do such a thing?
Exactly who we needed at that moment.
We must do the same, what Mahalia Jackson modeled almost 60 years ago: not stop questioning. Don’t ever stop pushing back.
When we do, we also tell the stories that must be told. Stories of Black women erased from historical movements, yes, but also the everyday stories that not everyone feels safe to share or say. Those stories matter too because then finally maybe we will ALL know the "oasis of freedom and justice."