Bernice Johnson Reagon(1942-2024)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
She is the founder of the a capella group "Sweet Honey in the Rock". A
native of Georgia, Reagon attended Albany State University, but later
transferred to Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia from which she
graduated in 1970. While a student, she was an active member of the
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). During her
participation in SNCC, she and three other vocalists founded the music
group known as the "Freedom Singers" who regularly sang at rallies and
protests during the 1960s. Reagon later earned a Doctorate in History
from Howard University in Washington, D.C. and served as curator of the
Program in African American Culture at the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. In 1991 Reagon
was featured with PBS Commentator Bill Moyers in a Public Affairs
Television documentary entitled "The Songs are Free", a study of the
origins and evolution of African-American "Freedom songs", from slave
spirituals to present-day musical genres. She continues to lecture,
record, and travel extensively with "Sweet Honey in the Rock", a group
whose lyrics and music continues to be punctuated by social and
political commentary--commentary that has earned them a large national
and international following.
