In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Bernice Johnson Reagon

Born: 1942. Died: 2024. Lived in: United States
For more than a half-century Bernice Johnson Reagon was 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.

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.

A woman of significant accomplishment, she has served as Distinguished Professor of History at American University, curator emerita at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History and as the founder and long-time artistic director of Sweet Honey In The Rock, a world-renowned a cappella ensemble of African-American women. Success in any one of these fields would be noteworthy, but she has combined music, a commitment to social justice and academic excellence, and has earned esteem in all three.

Member of: Sweet Honey in the Rock - Founder

Media Articles
Obituary, New York Times, Bernice Johnson Reagon, a Musical Voice for Civil Rights, Is Dead at 81

Arrangements | Recordings

Recordings and DVDs

Bernice Johnson Reagon : Give Your Hands To The Struggle

Bernie Johnson Reagon should be declared a National Treasure. Since the days of the Civil Rights Movement there has been no voice so strong in musically exhorting freedom, justice and equality. Bernice was contacted in 1975 about recording some of her songs for a new record company, Paredon Records, which was formed to create recordings by singers involved in freedom struggles around the world. Give Your Hands To Struggle was the first recording on which she had used multi-tracking. She found, when she reviewed the original master tapes from Paredon which had been archived at the Smithsonian, that they were cut versions of her original recordings. As her desire was to have the original full length songs presented, she reconstructed them for this reissue CD. This a window on the soul of the Civil Rights Movement by the founder of Sweet Honey In The Rock.

Songlist: We've Come A Long Way To Be Together, There's A New World Coming, Room In The Circle, Old Ship Of Zion, Why Did They Take Us Away?, In My Hands, Joan Little, They Are Falling All Around Me, Freedom In The Air, I Won't Crumble With You If You Fall, Had, Took, Misled, Give Your Hands To Struggle