Singer, activist, and teacher Bernice Johnson Reagon died July 16 at the age of 81. Her daughter Toshi gave no cause for her mother’s death.
The daughter of a Baptist preacher, Bernice was born in Albany, Georgia on October 4, 1942. Still in her teens, a young Bernice joined the civil right movement in peaceful protest. In 1962, she founded the Freedom Singers at Albany State College (now Albany State University) with Cordell Reagon; whome she later married. The group took religious songs and turned them into protest anthems by changing the name of Jesus for Freedom. Her efforts even landed her in jail; which later got her expelled from Albany State.
In 1966 she formed the Harmbee Singers in Atlanta, Georgia and in 1973 she co-founded the all female a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. She also performed as a solo artist. Reagon retired from the group in 2003.
After her divorce from Reagon in 1967, Bernice returned to school and went on to earn a doctorate degree from Howard University.
She went on to become a Professor of History at the American University, a curator at the National Museum of American History for the Smithsonian, and the Cosby Chair of Fine Arst at Spelman College.
Her accolades include the principal scholar and host of the Peabody Award winning series “Wade in the Water”, composer for the Peabody Award winning series “africans in America, was presented the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship for being an “upholder of the Black oral, performance, protest and worship traditions.”
Other than the mention of daughter Toshi, no list of survivors was given.