Mahalia Jackson (Continued)

Thomas Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson had affiliations in two different Baptist Churches in Chicago during gospel music's formative years. Yet, their mutual devotion to the genre and their like-minded commitment to its performance fostered an early partnership between them. Struck by the staunch opposition and criticism he faced from preachers and congregations of established Baptist and Methodist churches when he initially began promoting his compositions, Dorsey recounts: "Gospel music was new, and most people didn't understand. Some of the preachers used to call gospel music 'sin' music. They related it to what they called worldly things-like jazz and blues and show business. Gospel music was different from approved hymns and spirituals. It had a beat." Joining forces with Mahalia Jackson, Dorsey initiated an "audience development strategy that bypassed the Black religious and musical establishment altogether by taking the music "to the streets" (Duckett 1974, 5-6; Goreau 1975, 56): "There were many days and nights when Mahalia and I would be out there on the street corners …. Mahalia would sing songs I'd composed, and I'd sell sheet music to folk for five and ten cents… We took gospel music all around the country too" (Duckett 1974, 6).