composer, musician, songtalker, scholar, performer, historian, teacher, producer, director, author, public speaker, activist

It seems you have an outdated Flash player. This audio player contains snips of a number of Bernice Johnson Reagon's compositions.

Dr. Reagon at The National Press Club:

“I made the announcement of the 2010 Ridenhour Prize for Courage to Howard Zinn, it was received by his son Jeff Zinn. This prize is given annually by The Nation Institute for those who speak out.”

“Wisdom: Portraits by Andrew Zuckerman”

From April 29-May 23 Dr. Reagon’s portrait will be part of ’an extraordinary collection of photographs and interviews that capture the combined wisdom of legendary leaders. The Arts World Financial Center exhibit is being displayed under the spectacular glass-vaulted ceiling of the World Financial Center's Winter Garden in lower Manhattan.

For over four decades Bernice Johnson Reagon has been a major cultural voice

for freedom and justice. An African American woman’s voice, a child of Southwest Georgia, a voice raised in song, born in the struggle against racism in America during the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s, she is a composer, songleader, scholar and producer.

Scholar and Teacher

Perhaps no individual today better illustrates the transformative power and instruction of traditional African American music and cultural history than Bernice Johnson Reagon, who has excelled equally in the realms of scholarship, composition, teaching and performance.

Dr. Reagon was the featured speaker at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, Washington for a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration. The Seattle Times published a great review: “Freedom singer delivers civil-rights lessons in Seattle”.

Update, 7/24/10
Shirley:
I heard you ask for a conversation with the president. I now know that he did reach you on the phone and apologize for the horrific experience you have been through these past days. I do hope he gets to Southwest Georgia. I draw strength from being among the uncountable ones who have formed a living circle to surround and support you as you move through this testing ground. We are grateful to find you standing and taking some time to consider how best to move to continue the incredible transformative work in our world. Know that we are proud of the care you are taking not to be rushed as you look ahead. I love seeing your face and hearing your soft voice before me again and again and each time with calm and dignity, a deep grace and beauty, and quiet fierceness. I am here... standing-- holding-- my eyes shining--sending forth toward you, reflections of the light your journeying this week has cast over my life...

Statement to Shirley Sherrod, 7/22/10:
I hold you in the highest esteem
Thank you and your family for all you have done and given to us to build a new century where our people still have land. Thank you and your family and Rose Sanders and the team of supporters who battled for years to get a fair hearing on the unfair treatment of Black farmers by the Agricultural Department. Congratulations on your achievement.
I am looking at you now and just want you to know how important you are and how important it is that we have a chance to see how hard it is to stay the course and that often you have to move forward through enemies and those who come as supporters...

• Know that we know the Tea Party attack was wrong, Fox News airing the attack without checking it was wrong...
• The request for your resignation without investigation was wrong...
• The White House supporting USDA without investigation was wrong...
• The NAACP critiquing you without reviewing your message to them was wrong...
• The outcry and journalism revealing the truth was right and this nation needs this lesson today of how much we need good serious journalists...
• The NAACP acknowledgement of their failure and breakdown and apology was right and appropriate.
• I saw you make sure you spoke to that and that you appreciated the apology.

Thank you Shirley for your life and work and know that this day, I am so proud to be a child of Southwest Georgia and I do know that without your brilliant leadership,the support of your family and community people in sustaining multi-decade efforts there would be much less of Southwest Georgia that we could call home.
—Bernice Johnson Reagon
’a child of Southwest Georgia

Appreciation:

Dr. Reagon was part of the SNCC 50th Anniversary Conference at Shaw University, Raleigh, NC.
For the most part, I didn’t embarrass myself by crying at this reunion – but I regularly lost it when Bernice Reagon and the Freedom Singers were singing. The music was extraordinary. It was in those moments that the powerful memories – and sometimes sense of loss – would rise up and the tears come. Chuck Neblett, Rutha Harris, Len Chandler, Matthew Jones, Marshall Jones, Willie Peacock, Hollis, Betty Mae Fikes from Selma, Jamila from Montgomery and Birmingham, Guy and Candie singing the song that Guy wrote …and an absolutely beautiful tribute to Cordell Reagon as part of the Saturday night concert. (This footage included some shots of Joy Reagon who was active in Nashville SNCC with her husband, Freddy Leonard when I was there. “Eyes on the Prize” includes a wonderful interview with Freddy.) Bernice closed the conference on Sunday morning and there could not have been a better way. I’ve never met anyone more eloquent or powerful than Bernice Johnson Reagon.
—Read the full blog post by Sue Thrasher

Bernice Johnson Reagon on Freedom Fighting
Bernice Johnson Reagon raised us in song. She helped assuage our pain and stress, like a balm of Gilead. As guest speaker of Berklee's 15th annual Liberal Arts Symposium, Sweet Honey in the Rock founder Reagon inspired a packed house at David Friend Recital Hall with partly sung memoirs and advice from her life as a freedom singer.…
Reagon began her keynote by singing a soft spiritual, and told us, “I was born among singing. I don’t know of breathing or eating, without singing. I don’t mean from the radio (a wonderful invention) or from the iPod (another wonderful invention). I mean [singing] like walking and talking, like the air you breathe, so you didn’t define it in any particular way, because it was woven inside the you you came to know, the house you grew up in, the yard you played in, the school you went to, the church you went to. It was singing by the people around you.” …
Read the full article by Fred Brouchard, associate professor in the Liberal Arts Department, Berklee College of Music

Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon performed at the White House

A Freedom Singer Shares The Music Of The Movement
National Public Radio, February 11, 2010
“…Neal Conan talks with Reagon and her daughter, Toshi Reagon, about the creation, impact and influence of music during the civil rights movement.
Hear some field recordings of the music sung by the Freedom Singers for mass meetings and conferences organized during the civil rights movement…”

Watch video from the White House

• Workshop for high school students: “Music That Inspired the Movement”
• The Freedom Singers Perform at the White House

Upcoming Appearances | Past Appearances

For more information contact Jodi Solomon at the Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau.