We remember activist, singer, songwriter, and scholar Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, who spent her lifetime using the power of music to fight for freedom and justice.
As a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) Freedom Singers in 1962, Reagon performed across the country, raising funds for the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to recording several solo albums (some with our Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), she founded the Grammy-nominated all-Black women’s a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973.
As a curator and historian at the Smithsonian, Reagon explored how Black music fueled movements for change. In 1974, she joined the Smithsonian’s Division of Performing Arts, where she was instrumental in establishing the African Diaspora program and recruiting Black artists to participate in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage). Two years later, she founded the Program in Black American Culture at our Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Reagon continued her work as curator emeritus and helped shape our Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture as a member of the museum’s Scholarly Advisory Committee.
“Bernice’s fierce intellect was only matched by her fierce sense of justice she applied to the struggle for civil rights,” said Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III. “As a member of the NMAAHC Scholarly Advisory Council, her wisdom was invaluable in creating the intellectual framework of the museum. Her lyrics and music lift my spirits and embody her lifelong work to challenge America to live up to its ideals: ‘We who believe in freedom will not rest until it comes.’”
We will miss Dr. Reagon and send our heartfelt condolences to her family and community.
📷 : Photograph by Dane A. Penland, 1981, from our Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (SLA).
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