Bernice Johnson Reagon

CTL-E-6274 · Person · musician · 1942–2024

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07462 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6274.

Bernice Johnson Reagon, born October 4, 1942, in Albany, Georgia, was an American singer, composer, scholar, and civil rights activist. The daughter of a Baptist minister, she entered Albany State College in 1959 and became a student leader in the Albany Movement. Arrested in 1961 for joining a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee demonstration, she was expelled from Albany State and joined the Freedom Singers, the Albany-based group that toured the country raising money for SNCC's civil rights campaigns. She completed her B.A. in history at Spelman College in 1970 and earned a Ph.D. in United States history from Howard University in 1975. In 1973 she founded Sweet Honey in the Rock, an a cappella ensemble of African American women whose repertoire joined gospel, blues, and African traditions to songs of social witness; she composed and produced much of its repertoire and led the group for three decades. From 1974 she worked at the Smithsonian Institution as a folklorist, program director, and curator, and was named curator emeritus in 1993. She received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1989 and created Wade in the Water, the Peabody Award-winning Smithsonian and National Public Radio series on African American sacred music traditions, in 1994. She died on July 16, 2024, aged eighty-one.

The record

• Also known as: Bernice Johnson, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 7 — 747 Program, FINAL Wave 13; seventh Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Bernice Johnson Reagon entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities); no Sweet Honey in the Rock or Freedom Singers entity exists either. ID CTL-E-6274 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — Tier 4 corpus scan tail, corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json ranked #3086. The scan supplied the name string only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Black American song leader, composer, and Smithsonian curator who carried the freedom-song tradition from the Albany Movement into the national archive; founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. Vital status: DECEASED — died July 16, 2024, aged 81 (The HistoryMakers, accessed 2026-10-16; the New Georgia Encyclopedia, updated July 25, 2024, confirms she died in 2024 at eighty-one). Tribute treatment in the Curator's Judgment draft rests on this verified death date. STATISTICS — Smithsonian tenure shown with its source variance, not blended: The HistoryMakers (accessed 2026-10-16) gives Smithsonian service 1974-1993 and curator emeritus in 1993; the New Georgia Encyclopedia (accessed 2026-10-16) gives the emeritus naming in 1994. Retirement from Sweet Honey in the Rock likewise varies: the Encyclopedia gives 2004, after thirty years; obituary coverage syndicated from the Associated Press gives 2003. The description therefore says she led the group for three decades and asserts no single retirement year. MacArthur fellowship year 1989 is consistent across the Encyclopedia and obituary coverage. MEDIA: photo HELD (named candidate in media spec; no license claimed); chart staged in media spec; video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (person record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (Created for this packet (CTL graphic, CTL-PHOTO-001 lane) from the record's sourced facts.) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Relationships

• MacArthur Foundation — honored by
  Reagon received a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1989 for her work on African American sacred song traditions (New Georgia Encyclopedia); the MacArthur Foundation is CTL-E-5256 (Organization). honored_by runs Person→Organization per the schema matrix.
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) — member of organization
  Bernice Johnson Reagon was arrested at a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (CTL-E-5421, Organization) demonstration in 1961 and joined the SNCC Freedom Singers, touring to raise money for SNCC's campaigns (The HistoryMakers; New Georgia Encyclopedia). member_of_organization runs Person→Organization per the schema matrix.

Sources

• The HistoryMakers, Bernice Johnson Reagon biography (accessed 2026-10-16) — born October 4, 1942; raised in Albany, Georgia; arrested in 1961 as an Albany State College student at a SNCC demonstration and joined the SNCC Freedom Singers; B.A. in history, Spelman College, 1970; founded Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973; doctorate in U.S. history from Howard University, 1975; Smithsonian folklorist, program director and curator 1974-1993, named curator emeritus 1993; professor of history at American University 1993-2002; passed away July 16, 2024, at the age of eighty-one — https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/bernice-johnson-reagon-39 (primary source · build store)
• New Georgia Encyclopedia, Bernice Johnson Reagon (accessed 2026-10-16) — born October 4, 1942, in Albany, Georgia; Albany State College from 1959; SNCC demonstrations 1961, arrest and expulsion; joined the Freedom Singers; founded the Harambee Singers in 1966; Spelman degree completed 1970; Ph.D. Howard University 1975; formed Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973 and retired from the group in 2004 after thirty years; Smithsonian staff from 1974; MacArthur Foundation grant 1989; Wade in the Water (1994), a twenty-six-hour Peabody Award-winning Smithsonian/NPR radio series; distinguished professor at American University 1993; curator emeritus 1994; died in 2024 at the age of eighty-one — https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/bernice-johnson-reagon/ (primary source · build store)

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Record CTL-E-6274 · Combined Graph record U-07462 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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