Mahalia Jackson the Greatest Gospel Singer Performed at O.W. Dillon High of Kentwood, LA

Mahalia Jackson

Mahalia Jackson, the greatest gospel singer, sung at O.W. Dillon High School in Kentwood, La., in the mid-60s.  Betty Lou Womack recalled the day Mahalia arrived at the school. Betty's parents couldn't afford to give Betty money to purchase a ticket to attend the musical concert. But she pushed her way into a  standing crowd outside, just to get a look at Mahalia.  "Just to see her get out of the car was enough for me," said Betty.  I remember how they laid out the carpet for her to walk into the gym of O.W. Dillon High, I'll never forget Betty said. "I was just happy to see her!"  She recalled the crowd gathering and waiting to hear the sound of  Mahalia Jackson's beautiful voice. "What an exciting moment for everyone on the campus Betty said!"  As she said, she will never forget that day. I know there are other people like Betty who were there. I want to hear their stories too!

I started asking other people who attended  O.W. Dillon High School, if they remember her singing at the school? Some said yes, and others couldn't recall at all.  Quite a few individuals stated that it was after they graduated. Betty, recalled it like it was just yesterday.  One of the people I spoke to told me I needed to talk to the daughters of Collis Temple, Sr. Their father Mr. Temple was the second principal of the school. 

Betty Lou Womack

Following O.W. Dillon principalship as a leader,  Mr. Temple worked hard as principal to continue building on the foundation that Professor Strange and Professor Dillon started.  Mr. Temple invited Mahalia Jackson to sing at O.W. Dillon High. His daughter pointed out that her father worked hard to give African American students and the community cultural enrichment.  Each year the town of Amite held an annual fair.  Before integration, segregation didn't allow black and white people to attend the festival on the same day.  Saturday was known as "Nigger Day," that was the day that African American people could attend the fair.  Mr. Temple wouldn't allow his children to attend the festival on that day for that reason according to one of his daughters. 

He became inspired to start a fair on the school campus so that African American people could be treated with respect.  Mr. Temple met with entertainers, vendors and marching bands and invite them to participate in the school event.  African-Americans in Kentwood and surrounding communities would look forward to their annual event. 

Mahalia Jackson was one of the singers among many entertainers that performed at O.W. Dillon High School. She was born on October 26, 1911,  and died in Chicago, Illinois, in 1972.  If anyone who attend the concert to hear Mahalia sing, I would like to hear your story. 

She Was One of Twenty Three Children

Ms. Maxine Knighten

I saw this petite and certainly neat lady several places in the community. She has strongly resembled by maternal cousin Wille K. Gordon, Jr., wife. One time I thought that was my cousin's wife. Mostly, I've seen her in the library with young children. Today I finally got a chance to sit down and talk with her.  Her name is Ms. Maxine Knighten.

After her church service, she stopped over to tell me about her experience at Tangipahoa Parish Training School for Colored. She graduated in 1952 from the school and went on to become an educator herself in Chicago. She was so beautiful in her blue suit and with her matching blue hat and happy to tell me that she was in her mid-80s.  "Could it be in the Kentwood water?" All the elders in the Town of Kentwood is very healthy and their mine are full of history.

When she started telling me about things that happen in the 50s, I could do anything but listen and write. She told me that she was one of twenty- three children and that she was one of seven sets of twins.  "Twenty-three babies, I said!" I thought about a classroom of twenty-three children.  Several of the children didn't survive and died during childbirth.

Mahalia Jackson

Ms. Knighten survived all of her siblings. I could imagine  being born in such a large family and surviving  all my sibling. She still has a lot of nieces, nephews, and other relatives.  She recalls  hearing Mahalia Jackson and gospel singer Joe May sing at Tangipahoa Parish Training School for the Colored. She remembered paying her dollar to get in to hear the concert.  That was one of the questions I had to ask her. "Mahalia song so beautiful," said Ms. Knighten. I never forget that day,
it was so nice.

We started talking about the teachers who worked there during her time at school. She talked about Mr. Thornton and how hard of a teacher he was because he expected only the best from you. I remember Mr. O.W. Dillon using that left hand because he was left handed. The subject of use books was the next things she pointed out to me. She couldn't understand why all the white kids got new books and the negro students had to get the used books. That was the way it was when I was in grade school as well.

Two other people said that they were there that day with Mahalia Jackson came to the school. As she reflects on days that she probably had forgotten about up until now. The hardship of life is one thing she stressed to me. "Yes it was hard and I mean hard," she said. "We alway had food, because daddy grew produce and we had milk cow," she said.

But sometimes we had to go and work in the fields picking cotton, beans, and other produce. "I hated and I mean I hated because I wanted to go to school," said Ms. Knighten.  But daddy did want us to go to school.

I can't wait until Thursday for another history lesson for Ms. Knighten. Click below to hear gospel singer Joe May and Mahalia Jackson youtube,

Joe May

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXtR5R6wp1c

Mahalia Jackson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXtR5R6wp1c