Bernice Johnson Reagon, The civil rights songstress and co-founder of The Freedom Singers, who later started the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, has died aged 81.
Reagan's death was confirmed by Cortland Cox, the Legacy Program Chair of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee, according to NPR. No cause of death was given.
In the 1960s, Johnson Reagan was central to the African-American struggle for civil rights, beginning her work in her hometown of Albany, Georgia, while enrolled in college, where protests and marches were often accompanied by mass arrests. He found inspiration in the songs sung by the elders at community meetings and gatherings. “As a singer and activist in the Albany Movement, I sang and heard the songs of freedom and saw them rally sections of the black community at times when other means of communication were ineffective,” she said. NPR's Fresh Air. “It was the first time I knew the power of song as an instrument to articulate the concerns of our community.”
Reagon was imprisoned in 1961 for participating in a civil rights demonstration and was expelled from college for her activism. He then co-founded the Freedom Singers in 1962, an acappella group that was part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, along with Rutha Harris, Charles Neblett and Cordell Reagon. The band began touring in December of that year to raise money for SNCC and officially became the first freedom singer group to tour nationally. The band chronicled SNCC's activities through songs such as “They put Medgar Evers in his grave”, about the funeral of a leader. She later married Cordell Reagon, with whom she had two children before divorcing in 1967.
In 1966, Johnson Reagon founded the Harambee Singers, who were associated with the Black Consciousness Movement. While serving as vocal director of the Black Repertory Theater at Howard University (where she earned her doctorate after returning to school after her divorce), she formed Sweet Honey in the Rock, an all-female African-American acappella group. they sought to affect change and portray the Black experience through their voices.
Johnson Reagon served as Sweet Honey in the Rock's manager from 1973 to 2003. After a performance at a University of Chicago festival in 1975, Flying Fish Records signed the band and they went on to great success. Their debut album had the same title Sweet honey on the rock. Other projects include; On This Earth, Holy groundand The women gather. The band was nominated for Grammy Awards three times.
In 1993, Johnson Reagon wrote the book We Who Believe in Freedom: Sweet Honey in The Rock, Still on the Journey, which details the group's history.
Along with her musical pursuits, Johnson Reagon joined the Smithsonian in 1974, where she worked in the Division of Performing Arts/African Diaspora Project as a Cultural Historian. There he developed two major projects: Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Musical Traditionsa radio series and Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs, 1960-66. Johnson Reagon won a Peabody Award for Wade in the water.
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