‘The changing of my voice came after jail. … It was bigger than I'd ever heard it before. It had this ringing in it. It filled all the space of the church. I thought it was because I had been in jail. It was because I had stepped outside of the safety zone. ... I tell people, if you don't sometimes walk through trouble, you'll never get to meet the rest of yourself. ... And maybe if I'd never gone to jail, I would have never gotten to know that part of my singing. It was a blessing.
In 1961, Bernice Johnson Reagon was expelled from Albany State College in Southwest Georgia after being jailed for her participation in a civil rights protest. But, school officials could not keep her down; this young woman rose to be a world-famous singer, composer, scholar, and social activist. …
Reagon has been awarded fourteen honorary doctorates and several awards from the arts and humanities. In 1989 she was awarded the MacArthur "Genius Grant” for “extraordinary originality and dedication in creative pursuits.”
Retiring from Sweet Honey in the Rock in 2004 Reagon continued to perform. She describes herself as a “song-talker, one who balances talk and song with the creation of a live performance conversation with those who gather within the sound of my voice.”
In an interview with Bill Moyers, she explained the value of African-American culture; “When the culture is strong, you've got this consistency where black people can grow up in these places with this voice just resonating about our specialness in the universe.”’
Invitation: “…outside of the safety zone…”
Portraits of Racial Justice: Americans Who Tell the Truth by Robert Shetterly pg. 90
Read more about Bernice Johnson Reagon (link) and her books and music (link)
“Bernice Johnson Reagon (October 4, 1942 – July 16, 2024) was an American song leader, composer, professor of American history, curator at the Smithsonian, and social activist. In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia.[1][2] In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, based in Washington, D.C.[3] Reagon, along with other members of the SNCC Freedom Singers, realized the power of collective singing to unify the disparate groups who began to work together in the 1964 Freedom Summer protests in the South.[4] “
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I remember hearing Bernice Johnson Reagon one stormy winter night at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. Speaking about the song, Wade in the Water, she stated, “we do not have the privilege of standing on the shoreline and observing life. We need to wade in the muddy water and get wet.” There is no safety zone these days. So with bare feet of with boots on it is time for us to wade in the water and get muddy.”
"It was because I had stepped outside of the safety zone. ... I tell people, if you don't sometimes walk through trouble, you'll never get to meet the rest of yourself," Bernice Johnson Reagon. I had the great privilege of hearing Bernice Johnson Reagon sing with Sweet Honey and the Rock when I lived in Cincinnati. I heard Rep. John Lewis' clarion call of getting into "good trouble" when I read her statement of walking through trouble to meet the rest of yourself.