Washington, D.C. (Thursday, July 18, 2024) – A powerful voice for social justice has joined her ancestors. 81-year-old Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon died July 16th at a local hospital, according to her daughter Toshi Reagon. No official cause of death was given.

Dr. Reagon was a founder of the Freedom Singers and Sweet Honey In the Rock. She spent much of her life working at the intersection of music and activism while promoting Black history and culture as a producer, performer, composer, and scholar.

Reagon received a PhD in history from Howard University. She was a professor at American University and worked at the Smithsonian Institution as a curator. Dr. Reagon’s work in the civil rights movement was vast and long. She used her voice and carefully penned lyrics to bring attention to racism and injustices. In the early 1960s, Reagon performed with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s musical group Freedom Singers, bringing liberation songs to organizing meetings, jails, and marches.

Reagon served as the vocal director of the Black Repertory Theater at Howard University. While at Howard, she formed Sweet Honey In the Rock, an all-Black acappella group that sought to change and portray the African American experience through song. The group’s debut album was self-titled Sweet Honey In the Rock. Other works include Sacred Ground, The Women Gather, and In this Land. Sweet Honey In the Rock was nominated for numerous times for Grammy Awards.