Fifty years after her death, friends and fans including Al Sharpton assess the legacy of a singer who took gospel mainstream and became ‘as big as Beyoncé’
In 2018, following a bruising divorce, the British singer Sarah Brown was “broke, financially, emotionally and spiritually – I had nothing to live for”. At her lowest ebb, she turned to a voice that had given her crucial guidance and succour when she was a child: Mahalia Jackson, the pre-eminent gospel star of the 20th century.
“Pop music was...
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