John 4:43-54

Mahalia Jackson is one of the greatest gospel music singers of all time.

She also changed American History.

Without Mahalia Jackson, you wouldn’t know anything about an “I Have a Dream” speech. Instead, our kids would have learned about Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Bad Check” speech.

Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it? 

Jackson was the primary force in bringing gospel music out of the church and into the popular culture. She was the first gospel singer to win a Grammy and was instrumental to the civil rights movement. She was also one of Dr. King’s best friends.

She sang at many of his rallies, her voice was the soundtrack of the civil rights movement. When Dr. King was discouraged, he would call Mahalia Jackson and ask her to sing a gospel song to him over the phone.

Dr. King had struggled to put together his speech for the March on Washington, because of time constraints. (AMEN!!!!). He was supposed to keep it to 5 minutes.

But he had 2 metaphors that he really loved that wanted to use (AMEN!!!!)…one about a bad check that had been stamped “insufficient funds” and another about having a dream.

He decided to cut the dream part and stick with the “bad check” metaphor.

Of course…he ended up using both. 

Now, I just want y’all all to recognize this. One of the most enduring speeches of American History…delivered by one of the greatest preachers in American History… only exists because that preacher decided to use 2 METAPHORS and DELIBERATELY GO OVER HIS TIME by TRIPLE.

As King delivered the speech, he was following his written notes to the tee. He had mostly, to that point, called African Americans to endure suffering. To not give up…but he hadn’t yet, given a description of hope. He had named the problem. He had named how to address the problem…but He was nearing the end of what he had written down and he simply hadn’t talked about what America would be like at the end of all the suffering. 

That’s when Mahalia Jackson yelled out, “Tell them about the Dream, Martin! Tell them about the Dream!”

Dr. King paused…then slid his notes over to the side of the lectern and said, “I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I still have a dream!”

That’s when Clarence Jones, one of Dr. King's advisers, turned to the person next to him and said, "These people out there, they don’t know it, but they’re about ready to go to church."

And the rest was history. Literally.

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