Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Civil Rights song leader, co-founder of  the Freedom Singers, worker in the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, historian and scholar, who later founded the African American all-woman a cappella singing group "Sweet Honey in the Rock", passed away on July 16 at the age of 81. Her legacy is enormous.

Upon hearing of her death, Joy of Resistance seatched its archives for the exclusive interview with Dr. Reagon, that Maretta Short and Fran Luck were fortunate to be able to produce, conduct and present on WBAI, in 2010. In this program you are going to be hearing that entire interview.

In it, Bernice Johnson Reagon speaks of communal song as a builder of community and carrier of courage and how she developed as a 'song leader from early singing in her church to the Freedom Singers and the Civil Rights Movement. She speaks of  her personal experiences with the legendary activist Ella Baker, who was instrumental in forming both the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (from which Dr. King emerged), the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee and how Ella Baker helped Bernice Johnson Reagon to shape  her own understanding of organizing and movwement,-building, especially in regard to giving space to young people. This blending of Reagon's personal experience and political understanding, in her own words, is priceless and her unique style of speaking is as eloquent and poetic as her music, as she brings new meanings to the discussion of Civil Rights and women's history.

The co-host of this interview is Maretta Short, who deserves her own introduction. Maretta, who passed in 2022, was with Joy of Resistance from 2006 to 2012. An historian of Black history and strong feminist, she was the first African American President of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Organization for Women and worked in the Black community in NJ, including with the People's Organization for Progress. She was instrumental in making the connection with Bernice johnson Reagon that enabled us to conduct this exclusive interview !

The interview begins with the playing of "Ella's Song," written by Bernice Johnson Reagon--the song consists entirely of quotes by Ella Baker, set to music.