The poignant and soul-searching scene in the movie ‘Selma’ when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. calls gospel legend Mahalia Jackson in the dead of night and asks her to sing to him to bolster his sagging spirits frames not the moment, but the civil rights movement. The song Jackson renders, ‘Precious Lord,’ is one that embodies the Black liberation struggle in America and represents the deeply embedded faith of Blacks in a divine authority able to reconcile our earthly oppression. Written by noted composer Thomas A. Dorsey, the song offers comfort to the battle weary and reminded Blacks fighting Jim Crow that no matter the circumstances, God ultimately speaks with authority.
