Mavis Staples

Mavis Staples was born July 10, 1939, and grew up with music in Chicago, where her parents, Roebuck “Pops” and Oceola Staples, had moved from the Mississippi Delta in search of a better life. They sang gospel music at home and then in churches and on a weekly radio show.

“When I was young, we would go around and perform at churches, and they’d raise an offering to pay us,” Staples told NEA interviewer Mary Eckstein. “I think Pops told us the first offering we got was $7. Sometimes we would sing for nothing. I had this big voice, but people couldn't see where it was coming from. They had to stand me in a chair because I was so little. Well, I'll tell you, I would sing and people would come up to me afterwards with tears in their eyes and put money in my hand. … My mother had to sew little pockets in my little dresses because I'd put the money on the piano or somewhere and then forget it.”

The Staple Singers — Pops, Mavis and her siblings Cleo, Yvonne, and Pervis — had a hit in 1956 with the single “Uncloudy Day” on the VeeJay label. The next year, after Mavis graduated from high school, the group went on the road. In 1963, the family heard Martin Luther King preach in Montgomery, Alabama. Moved by King’s message, Pops Staples told his family, “If he can preach it, we can sing it.” That led the group to write and record songs such as “March Up Freedom's Highway” and “Why Am I Treated so Bad.”

“We went from strictly gospel to protest songs — freedom songs — after we met Dr. King,” Mavis Staples told Eckstein. “After we felt things were coming together like Dr. King wanted, we made a transition to what we called message songs. But we never got far away from gospel — we've always considered ourselves basically gospel singers. It's the message we put in our songs and our harmonies that made us so different. My father gave us harmonies to sing that he and his brothers and sisters used to sing down in Mississippi, a kind of Delta and country sound. It was just so unique and different from everyone else's. And the messages in our songs were special. We were singing songs of inspiration to uplift people.”

The group went on to have a number of mainstream hits, including “Respect Yourself,” “I'll Take You There” and “Let's Do It Again.” Mavis Staples also began a solo career; her first album under her own name was released on Memphis’ Stax label in 1969. She has continued to record and perform, collaborating with performers ranging from Bob Dylan to Marty Stuart and Prince.

Pops Staples was named a National Heritage Fellow in 1998, two years before his death. Mavis Staples’ recognition makes them the first father and daughter to receive the award, a distinction that she said makes her feel “really special.”

“Like father, like daughter,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to follow in his footsteps. … After my father passed away, I didn't know which way I was going. I said to myself, ‘You've got keep Pops' legacy alive.’ This award makes me feel that I'm going in the right direction. I’m doing what I'm supposed to be doing and what God has put me here to do.”