The Singer Who MLK Called the Queen of American Folk Music

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The life and work of Bernice Johnson Reagon

Bernice Johnson Reagon was born in Dougherty County, Georgia, in 1942. Her father was a sharecropper and her mother was a maid. Reagon began her musical career singing gospel music in her church choir. In the early 1960s, she became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. She joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and worked as a Freedom Rider, protesting segregation in the American South. Reagon was arrested several times and was even beaten by a white mob.

Her early life and family

Bernice Johnson Reagon was born in Dougherty County, Georgia, on October 4, 1942. Her parents, Bertha and James Johnson, were sharecroppers who later became part of the first generation of African Americans to benefit from the New Deal programs of the 1930s. Reagon’s mother was a former schoolteacher who became a homemaker when she married; her father was a Baptist minister. Reagon was one of seven children, six girls and one boy. All of the girls in the family were required to sing in the choir at their father’s church. Reagon’s parents instilled in their children a love of music and an appreciation for their African American heritage.

Reagon attended Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she majored in music. During her time at Spelman, she met and married Charles Reagon, a fellow student. The couple had three children: Toshiya, Kwanzaa, and Mshindi. In 1964, shortly after graduation from college, Reagon joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an organization that worked for civil rights through nonviolent protest. She became actively involved in the civil rights movement, participating in Freedom Rides and working on voter registration drives in the South.

Her work with the Civil Rights Movement

Reagon was an active participant in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s. She was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and often sang at civil rights rallies. In 1963, she was part of the historic Freedom Singers, a group that travelled around the country to sing freedom songs at civil rights events. Reagon has said that singing was a way for her to express her anger at the injustices she saw around her and to empower other people to fight for their rights.

In 1965, she was arrested and jailed in Selma, Alabama during a civil rights protest. While in jail, she wrote one of her best-known songs, “Freedom Now,” which has been performed by many different artists over the years.

Reagon continued to use her music to promote social justice throughout her career. In the 1970s, she founded Sweet Honey in the Rock, an all-female a cappella group that performs African-American spirituals, blues, jazz, and gospel music. Sweet Honey in the Rock has toured internationally and released several albums over the years. Reagon has also composed music for film and television productions about the Civil Rights Movement, including Eyes on the Prize (1987) and FreedomSong (2000).

Her work with the SNCC Freedom Singers

The Freedom Singers were a group of young people who traveled around the country during the early 1960s to sing freedom songs at civil rights rallies. The group was started by Bernice Johnson Reagon, who was then a student at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Reagon had become involved in the civil rights movement in her hometown of Albany, Georgia, and she had been arrested and beaten for her participation. After she heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak at a rally in Atlanta, she decided that she wanted to do more to support the movement.

The Freedom Singers primarily sang Negro spirituals and folk songs that had been popularized by artists such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. They also wrote their own songs about the civil rights movement. The group’s purpose was to inspire people to keep fighting for their rights, even when things seemed hopeless.

The Freedom Singers became very popular and well-known throughout the country. They performed at civil rights rallies, churches, schools, and concerts. They even appeared on television and recorded an album. In 1963, they were invited to sing at the March on Washington, where they performed before a crowd of 250,000 people.

After the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, the Freedom Singers continued to perform and advocate for social change. They also toured internationally, spreading their message of freedom and equality to countries all over the world.

Reagon left the Freedom Singers in 1966 to focus on her solo career as a singer and songwriter. She continued to use her music to promote social justice throughout her life. In 1982, she founded Sweet Honey in the Rock, an all-female a cappella group that is still active today.

Reagon’s influence on American music

Before there was Beyonce, before there was Taylor Swift, there was Odetta. A classically trained actress and singer, Odetta’s status as a folk music legend was cemented in the early 1960s when she captured the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. King called her the “Queen of American Folk Music,” and her music would go on to inspire artists like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Janis Joplin. Let’s take a closer look at the life and music of this influential singer.

Her work with Sweet Honey in the Rock

While many people know of Bernice Johnson Reagon as the founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock, a world-renowned African American a cappella ensemble, she is also an accomplished solo artist, composer, and scholar. As a member of the Civil Rights Movement, she was deeply influenced by the music she heard around her. In an interview with NPR, she recalled how music was used as a tool for both organizing and celebrating during that time. “We would sing to raise our spirits when we were getting beat up. We would sing to keep our energy up when we were marching,” she said. “We would sing to help us remember what we were fighting for.”

After the Civil Rights Movement ended, Reagon used her musical skills to continue fighting for social justice as a solo artist and member of Sweet Honey in the Rock. The group became known for their soulful renditions of traditional spirituals and protest songs. In addition to their moving performances, they also utilized their platform to educate their audiences about the history of African American music and the civil rights movement.

Reagon’s work with Sweet Honey in the Rock helped to bring African American music into the mainstream and demonstrated the power that music has to create social change.

Her influence on American folk music

Reagon was among the first to bring the sounds of the Civil Rights movement to a national audience. Her group, the Freedom Singers, was founded in 1962 to raise money for Civil Rights causes. The group’s repertoire included traditional folk songs, protest songs, and spirituals. Reagon’s arrangements of these songs attracted the attention of folk singers like Pete Seeger and Roberta Flack. She would go on to work with both of them, as well as with a who’s who of American musicians, including jazz great Mariachi Duane Eddy and country legend Emmylou Harris. Reagon’s influence on American music is impossible to overstate.

Reagon’s legacy

As a singer, songwriter, and social activist, Bernice Johnson Reagon helped shape the American civil rights movement of the 1960s with her stirring anthems of freedom. Reagon was born in Dougherty County, Georgia, on October 4, 1942, the eldest of eight children. Her parents, both former sharecroppers, instilled in their children a love of music and a commitment to social justice. Reagon began her musical training in the church choir and went on to study music at Albany State College and Howard University.

Her impact on American culture

In the years since her death, Joan Baez’s music and activism has continued to inspire people around the world. In 2018, Baez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor, for her “contributions to the struggle for human rights and social justice.”

Baez’s songs have been recorded by some of the biggest names in music, including Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, The Beatles, and Johnny Cash. Her version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

In recent years, Baez has focused on environmental activism, working to raise awareness about climate change. She has also continued to speak out against injustice and fight for social change. In 2016, she lent her voice to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Her influence on American music

Reagon’s influence on American music is undeniable. She is credited with helping to start the “folk revival” of the 1960s, and her song “We Shall Overcome” has become an anthem of the civil rights movement. Reagon has also been a major force in the world of opera, composing several works that have been performed at major opera houses around the world.