Sweet Honey in the Rock singer and civil rights activist Bernice Johnson Reagon dies at 81

One of the most powerful voices of the civil rights movement, Sweet Honey in the Rock co-founder Bernice Johnson Reagon has died at the age of 81. Daughter and musician Toshi Reagon announced the news in a Facebook post on Wednesday (July 17) in which was announced that the “award-winning force and cultural voice for freedom” passed Tuesday; no cause of death was given.

“As a scholar, singer, composer, organizer and activist, Dr. Reagan spent more than half a century speaking out against racism and systemic inequities in the U.S. and worldwide,” her daughter wrote of the singer who co-founded the vocal ensemble for civil rights . The Freedom Singers as well as the Grammy-nominated all-female vocal group Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Reagon was a key part of the civil rights struggle in the 1960s, lending her voice to hymns depicting the struggle of African Americans through her founding of the Freedom Singers, which gathered at Albany State College in Albany, GA in 1962. The group's powerful blend of Baptist-influenced songwriting and protest anthems, anchored by Reagon's expressive vocals, led to a partnership with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group of black college students who led peaceful direct-action protests in the whole country. including Freedom Rides and voter registration drives that often drew violent responses from the police and racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.

Johnson, the daughter of Baptist minister JJ Johnson, was born in Dougherty County, GA on October 4, 1942 and enrolled at the historically black public college Albany State College (now known as Albany State University) in 1959 at the age of 16. He was active in civil rights activities and campus demonstrations, although he was in prison when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in December 1961 in Albany along with hundreds of others on charges of obstructing the sidewalk and marching without a permit.

“I was already in prison, so I missed most of it,” he said WHYY's Fresh Air in 1988. “But what they started writing about … no matter what the article said, they were talking about the song.” Those revamped church songs, which Reagon would say often swapped “freedom” for “Jesus,” as well as her activism got the singer kicked out of Albany State after she was arrested for protesting. This led Reagon to found the a cappella Freedom Singers in 1962, whose songs often served as a record of the struggle for civil rights, from tributes to fallen leaders (“They Laid Medgar Evers in His Grave”), to a renewal of the movement's anthem, “We Shall Overcome” and “Free At Last,” named after a passage in Dr. King's “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington. He also co-founded the Atlanta-based Harambee Singers in 1966, whose work was associated with the growing Black Consciousness Movement at the time.

After her divorce from Freedom Singer co-founder Cordell Reagon in 1967, Reagon returned to school at Spelman College in 1970 to complete her undergraduate degree. A Ford Foundation scholarship to study at another HBCU, Howard University, led Reagon to receive a Ph.D. from school, one of many academic honors she would receive during her lifetime.

Between her many academic titles, Reagon was Professor Emeritus of History at American University, Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and Cosby Chair in Fine Art at Spelman College. She was also the principal scholar and host of the 26-part Peabody Award-winning 1994 NPR/Smithsonian series Wade in the water and composer of music for the 1998 Peabody Award-winning film series Africans in America. She was awarded a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 1989 in recognition of her work in music performance and composition, musicology, and ethnomusicology as a proponent of Black oral, performance, protest, and worship traditions.

Reagon co-founded the six-piece a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973, a vocal ensemble that toured the world with a rotating cast of singers who combined gospel music, jazz, blues and African traditions, with touching hymns and song stories topics that ranged from love and spirituality to racism and domestic violence. Among their signature tracks are “Ella's Song” in honor of civil rights leader Ella Baker and “Biko”, a tribute to South African freedom fighter Steve Biko.

The band, which Reagon fronted for three decades before retiring in 2003, has released more than two dozen albums since its self-titled 1976 debut LP. Reagon wrote the group's memoir, We who believe in freedom: Sweet honey on the rock, still on the journey in 1993 and also compiled the booklet for the 2 CD compilation Voices of the Civil Rights: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1965 by Smithsonian Folkways Records. In addition to her work singing and producing Sweet Honey in the Rock, Reagon released solo efforts, including 1975's Give your hands to the fight and of 1986 River of Life.

Check out some of Sweet Honey in the Rock's songs below.