used the voices to communicate their feelings about Christianity. Many singers sang through the problems and moved their audiences, often congregations, so much so that the audience forgot their own problems temporarily and the weights of the world were taken away through the music. (2) During the beginning of the Golden Age of Gospel (1945-1955), gospel music reached a near perfection and had a huge, devote audience. The call and response form in particular flourished in the new type of music. The African American gospel song had a unique power and ability to overcome. It was a means of transcending the listeners, singers and entire congregation to a higher spiritual and emotional level. During the post-Civil War years, the congregation style of singing was transformed by the new Pentecostal congregations, also known as Holiness and Sanctified. (5) African American gospel music was a twentieth century phenomenon which evolved through the people that moved from rural communities to urban centers in cities. They left their areas of limited promise and social and economic terror in hopes of starting over. (4) Gospel was s style of repertoire and singing. The music was delivered as a high powered spiritual force. The emphasis was placed on the vocal rhythms. Gospel music combined call and response forms, with slow-metered , lined out protestant hymns. Born in 1912, Mahalia Jackson was the third of six children. Growing up in segregated, racist times, Mahalia lived in what she called a ?shotgun shack?. White folks owned the bars and grocery stores of the neighborhood. Blacks were left with the left over jobs, often working for white families, or working on the railroad tracks. Mahalia?s father found work on the riverfront, dock towns and on the boats. On Sundays, her father worked preaching in a Baptist church. For as hard as her parents worked, money always seemed to be short. When Mahalia was only five years old, her mother died. Her father remarried and acquired a whole new family with the marriage. Although she never earned any pay for her work, Mahalia began doing chores for her Aunt Duke after school. Both sets of Mahalia?s grandparents were born into slavery and she was doomed to head the same way. When Mahalia was in eight grade, she began to look for work outside of her aunt?s chores and got a job as a laundress. (4) When Mahalia finally became famous, she always demanded her payments in cash, paid up-front. The reason for her requests was because often times during her childhood years, they never received the payments they worked hard to receive. They would often be cheated out of their sums because plantation owners claimed that the money they earned was equal to their fees for room and board. (1) When Mahalia was just a small child, everyone that knew her agreed that she possessed something special. At eight years old, she had an uncommonly large voice. Using her talented voice both in and outside of church, she gained much praise. She of acquired a rich range spirituals and hymns. (5)Living in New Orleans, music was all around her and the city was filled with performing bands, pianists and various other types of musicians. It was almost as if everyone in the city of New Orleans knew how to play a musical instrument or sing a song. The new music was being produced for and by blacks. It because a tradition to hire brass bands to lead the funeral parade. This is only one small example of the good time spirit of the city. To them, they cried at the incoming of child and rejoiced at the outgoing. Death was something that was celebrated, not feared. This type of music played after burying the dead was called Second Line music. People would line the curbs and the returning band and dancing crowd often times attracted many fans. Despite the fact that someone had died, people were always happy. (1) The music meant something to them. It was the music of their souls and it was part of the New Orleans people and they way they di

Some common words found in the essay are:
Aunt Duke, African American, Mahalia Jackson, Baptist Church, Crown Theater, Cadillac Mahalia, George Avakian, Apollo Records, Bess Berman, Smith Smith, mahalia jackson, gospel music, gospel songs, 1 mahalia, martin luther, call response, mahalia moved, african american, baptist church, martin luther king, gospel singing, african american gospel, mahalia believed people,
Approximate Word count = 6204
Approximate Pages = 25 (250 words per page double spaced)