pmc editorial manager
Civil Rights Musician Bernice Johnson Reagon Dies at 81
Bernice Johnson Reagon, the founder of the all-female a capella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, died Tuesday in Washington. She was 81 and died in a hospital, according to her daughter Toshi Reagon, who did not give a cause.
Bernice Reagon was an original member of the Freedom Singers, a vocal quartet that sang songs to inspire civil rights protesters preparing for confrontations with the police. The Freedom Singers were associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which sent them to events throughout the South, including the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in 1963.
She received a doctorate in American history from Howard University in 1975 and directed the Black American Culture Program at the Smithsonian, where she assembled a collection of blues, gospel, and spiritual music.
