The death of Bernice Johnson (1942-2024) is a great loss to the spirtiual and activist communities among African Americans. Reagon was a founder of the Freedom Singers organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement in Georgia. She founded Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973. The group produced 22 albums between 1976 and 2016. She started singing gospel music at age 11. Because her church did not have a piano, her early musical style was shaped by a cappella music (use of the voice only) accompanied by "hands and feet." Reagon used her platform in the 1980s and 1990s to participate in the every major event in the period. She was a prime participant in the battle for treatment for HIV/AIDS, the fight to estabish a federal holiday for Martin Luther King's birthday, the fight against Apartheid in South Africa, and challenging the domestic and foreign policy of the Reagan administration. She received a PhD at Howard University in 1975. In 1974, Reagon was appointed as a cultural historian at the Smithsonian Institution. In this position, she collected African American sacred music from slavery up to the present. In 1989, she received a MacArthur Fellowship and retired from the Smithsonian in 1993. She was a Distinguished Professor of History at American University from 1993 to 2003. Her daugther Toshi, also a musician in her own right, announced her death of natural causes at the age of 81,
Bio/Obit Website Images Documentary Smithsonian Interviews Talks Essay SNCC Freedom Singers Harambee Singers Sweet Honey in the Rock Solo Performance With Daughter Toshi Reagon
Bio/Obit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernice_Johnson_Reagon https://www.npr.org/2024/07/17/1213897036/bernice-johnson-reagon-sweet-honey-in-the-rock-obituary https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bernice-johnson-reagon-sweet-honey-in-the-rock-dead-obituary-1235062972/
Website https://www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com/ Images https://tinyurl.com/bdz27yt9
Documentary https://gailpellettproductions.com/the-songs-are-free-bernice-johnson-reagon-and-african-american-music/
Smithsonian https://folklife.si.edu/legacy-honorees/bernice-johnson-reagon/smithsonian https://folkways.si.edu/bernice-johnson-reagon-civil-rights-song-leader/african-american-struggle-protest-folk/music/article/smithsonian https://sova.si.edu/record/nmah.ac.0653
Interviews http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/videos/8p58pf97h
Talks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4ftNqQkeUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFcMo0lkDIU
Essay http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/protest/text3/inourhands.pdf
SNCC https://snccdigital.org/people/bernice-johnson-reagon/
Freedom Singers https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/sncc-national-office/freedom-singers/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duvoETGVvYU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhO-P9KTjb0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrGntTuh8O4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsziXdKfOsE
Harambee Singers https://www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com/2014/11/30/harambee-singers/
Sweet Honey in the Rock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PucYEnyuDwA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G4gFxOO4lU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVMAaWMbRPY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV9Vf0a7YtM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KemD_y-gA4
Solo Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKOqfwLI5gA&list=PLUdAN7ir7PGN5LtLcW-uU1Ze7vmUF2k2x https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLICiurmK4s
With daughter Toshi Reagon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndh6tKje7HE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZaqPF00SUE https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/arts/music/toshi-reagon-parable-of-the-sower-lincoln-center-opera.html