Award-winning Mahalia Jackson film comes to Hulu

A new movie about legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is now streaming on Hulu. 

Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story stars Grammy Award-winning jazz and R&B artist Ledisi and covers five decades of Jackson’s life—highlighting both her personal faith and her more public role in the civil rights movement. 

Jackson, who would go on to perform at Carnegie Hall, President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, and at Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral, first started singing at a Baptist church in New Orleans. She began receiving critical acclaim after moving to Chicago in 1928 and performing as a soloist at Greater Salem Baptist Church. 

Despite requests from musicians like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong to sing other popular music genres like the blues and jazz, Jackson never performed anything but gospel.

“Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope,” she once said. 

The so-called Queen of Gospel developed a close relationship with Martin Luther King and was known to sing to him over the phone when he was feeling discouraged.

Jackson died of heart disease in 1972 at the age of 60. 

Remember Me was a favorite at Black film festivals nationwide this year, winning best feature film at both the Las Vegas and Charlotte Black Film Festivals. The project received additional awards at the Pan African Film Festival, the Roxbury International Film Festival, and the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival.

In a statement, Ericka Nicole Malone, who wrote and produced Remember Me, called Jackson a “national treasure.” 

“When I originally wrote [the film], I never imagined the world would embrace it the way it has,” she said. “I’m incredibly honored to see our vision for this film come to life.”