Bernice Johnson Reagon

An activist whose work began as a college student in Albany, Ga., during the civil rights movement, Dr. Reagon was a member of the original SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) Freedom Singers, and a founding member in 1966 of the Atlanta-based a cappella group, the Harambee Singers.

The founder of the internationally renowned a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, which she led for 30 years, until Feb. 2004, Dr. Reagon has also served as music consultant, composer and performer for film and video projects including the award-winning "Eyes on the Prize" and the Emmy Award-winning "We Shall Overcome." The author of dozens of publications, she has also produced most of the Sweet Honey in the Rock recordings. With her daughter and collaborator Toshi Reagon, Dr. Reagon was the score composer of the film "Beah: A Black Woman Speaks," which premiered in Los Angeles in Aug. 2003.

Dr. Reagon received her doctorate in U.S. history, with a concentration in African American oral history, from Howard University in 1975. A scholar specializing in the history and evolution of African American culture, Dr. Reagon was the 2002-04 Cosby Chair Professor of Fine Arts at Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., as well as professor emeritus at American University and curator emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.

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