Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, civil rights activist, scholar and musician who formed the vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock and co-founded the Freedom Singers and Harambee Singers, died Tuesday at age 81. In the early 1960s, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon performed with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee musical group, the Freedom Singers, performing liberation songs at marches, prisons and organizing meetings. She participated in Democracy Now! in 2008, celebrating the life and work of another civil rights music icon, Odetta Wilson, and reflecting on her own musical trajectory.
Bernice Johnson Reagon: “Sweet Honey in the Rock came out of a theater workshop, and it was going to be an a cappella performance of songs that were born out of people’s struggles at a community level, and stages in life. It was going to call people’s attention to issues that we needed to address as responsible citizens. And singers and artists really played a big role in challenging our society and our culture to change and be better. So the Freedom Singers and the freedom songs of the civil rights movement were formative for me as a singer, as a composer, and as a scholar.”
Bernice Johnson Reagon’s daughter, Toshi Reagon, also a well-known musician, shared the news on social media on Wednesday, quoting her mother: “I was here before I was born and I don’t plan on leaving when I die…”