Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, dies at the age of 81

Bernice Johnson Reagan, The civil rights activist and co-founder of the Freedom Singers, who later founded the a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, has died at the age of 81.

According to NPR, Reagon’s death was confirmed by Courtland Cox, chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s Legacy Project. No cause of death was given.

In the 1960s, Johnson Reagon was a central figure in the African American struggle for civil rights. She began her work in her hometown of Albany, Georgia, while still a college student, where protests and marches were often accompanied by mass arrests. She found inspiration in the songs that elders sang at assemblies and community meetings. “As a singer and activist in the Albany movement, I sang and listened to the freedom songs and saw how they brought parts of the black community together at times when other means of communication were ineffective,” she said on Fresh Air from NPR“For the first time, I learned how important song can be as an instrument for articulating our social concerns.”

Reagon was imprisoned in 1961 for participating in a civil rights demonstration and was expelled from college for her activism. In 1962, she formed the Freedom Singers, an a cappella group that was part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, with Rutha Harris, Charles Neblett, and Cordell Reagon. In December of that year, the group began touring to raise money for SNCC, officially becoming the first group of Freedom Singers to tour nationally. The group documented SNCC activities in song, including “They Laid Medgar Evers In His Grave,” about the funeral of a leader. She later married Cordell Reagon, with whom she had two children before divorcing in 1967.

In 1966, Johnson Reagon founded the Harambee Singers, which was associated with the Black Consciousness Movement. While serving as vocal director of the Black Repertory Theater at Howard University (where she received her doctorate upon returning to the university after her divorce), she founded Sweet Honey in the Rock, an all-female, African-American a cappella group that sought to create change and represent the black experience through their voices.

Johnson Reagon was the leader of Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1973 to 2003. After a performance at a University of Chicago festival in 1975, Flying Fish Records signed the group and they enjoyed great success. Their debut album was titled Sweet honey in the rockOther works are In this country, Holy groundAnd The women gather. The group was nominated for the Grammy Awards three times.

In 1993, Johnson Reagon wrote the book WThose who believe in freedom: Sweet honey in the rock, Still on the journey, in which the history of the group is described in detail.

In addition to her musical activities, Johnson Reagon joined the Smithsonian in 1974, where she worked as a cultural historian in the Department of Performing Arts/African Diaspora. There she developed two major projects: Wade in the Water: African-American Traditions of Sacred Musica radio series and Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Freedom Songs of Black Americans, 1960-66. Johnson Reagon won the Peabody Award for Wading through the water.