Bernice Johnson Reagon, whose stirring gospel voice helped provide the soundtrack of the civil rights movement, then went on to become a cultural historian, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution and the founder of the women’s a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, died on Tuesday in Washington. Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her daughter, Toshi Reagon, who did not give a cause. She was an original member in 1962 of the Freedom Singers, a vocal quartet that provided anthems of defiance for civil rights protesters preparing to confront the police or as they were hauled away to jail. The Freedom Singers were associated with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which sent them across the South as well as to the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island in 1963. Ms. Reagon once wrote, “I sang and heard the freedom songs and saw them pull together sections of the Black community at times when other means of communication were ineffective.”

---

Persons: Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon, Bernice Reagon, Reagon, “ Organizations: Smithsonian Institution, Student Nonviolent, Newport Folk Locations: Washington, Albany , Ga, Rhode Island