Amid all the recent headlines of the Presidential campaigns, it was easy to miss the news of the death of one of the major leaders for racial justice from the modern Civil Rights Movement into the 21st century. Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon died on July 16 at the age of 81. Over the course of nearly 60 years, she used singing as a way to inspire and engage thousands of people in the struggle for racial justice. She first came to national attention as a 19 year old student during the Albnany, GA campaign of 1961-2. Although the efforts to desegregate that city were not successful at the time, that campaign led to the development of more focused strategies resulting in gains in future campaigns, especially in Birmingham, AL in 1963. Despite the frustrations in Albany, one lasting contribution was the emergence of Bernice Johnson (her maiden name) as a gifted song leader. As a 19 year old student at Albany Stage College, she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the local chapter of the NAACP. When she was expelled from college for her activism, she became a founding member of The Freedom Singers, a group that traveled nationally to motivate and support people engaged in the Civil Rights Movement. Singing provided a sense of unity and spiritual power that enabled many people to endure the verbal and physical brutality directed at them during nonviolent direct action campaigns. Dr. Reagon wrote the following words reflecting on the power of song during the Civil Rights Movement:
When you ask somebody to lead a song, you’re asking them to plant a seed. The minute you start the song, then the song is created by everybody there. It’s almost like a musical explosion that takes place. Most of the mass meeting was singing – there was more singing than there was talking. Most of the work that was done in terms of taking care of the movement business had to do with nurturing the people who had come, and there would be two or three people who would talk but basically songs were the bed of everything. What I can remember is being very alive and very clear, the clearest I’ve ever been in my life. I knew that every minute, I was doing what I was supposed to do.
In the years after the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Reagon continued her education receiving her undergraduate degree from Spelman College and her docterate from Howard University. She worked as a cultural historian at the Smithsonian Institution and as a professor at American University in Washington, DC. She also founded the famous a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock that continued using singing as a way to inspire and promote justice for all people. Her life and witness are a great gift that continue to bear fruit today.
The first video posted below is an interview with Dr. Reagon in which she reflects on what it means to engage in the struggle for freedom and justice for all. The second video comes from a performance at the White House in 2010 and shows her power as a singer and song leader.