Mahalia Jackson’s Home

Mahalia Jackson's home - 8358 S. Indiana Ave.

I missed this post from Chicago History Today posted in September talking about the history of the famed gospel singer Mahalia Jackson who purchase the house you see above in Chatham in 1956. The Chatham of the 1950s was a different community and it wasn't a Black middle-class neighborhood as it's known today.

When Ms. Jackson moved into this house there was racial tension, however, ultimately the whites in this community moved out. The fear that this community would become a ghetto proved to be incorrect.

An unknown to me tidbit shared from Chicago History Today, this house was home to a white surgeon who declared that he would be proud to sell his home to Jackson. Unfortunately many of his then neighbors disagreed.