However, Jackson’s deep involvement in the Civil Rights movement is less known. In their exceptional new critical biography, Mahalia Jackson, Moving on Up a Little Higher: The Story of an American Civil Rights Pioneer (Liveright, August 18) historians Timothy D. Tyson & Mary D. Williams (who is also a gospel singer) provide a thoughtful and detailed glimpse into Jackson’s work as a civil rights’ pioneer. Born in poverty in 1911 in New Orleans, Jackson eventually moved with her Aunt Hannah in 1931 to Chicago, joining thousands of others migrating north in search of better pay and a better life. Even in the midst of her backbreaking work, Jackson knew she wanted so sing. According to Jackson, “‘People [marching in the second line celebrations] were always happy then, even though somebody had died .