Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon

Last week on Instagram one of the many posts about the election results and staying in the fight, featured “Ella’s Song” by Sweet Honey in the Rock. The opening lines of Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon’s ode to her mentor Ella Baker play over and over in my head. Less an ear worm and more a mantra.

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes¹

This is the CD insert with the signatures. "For Mary" in the top left and "Bernice Johnson Reagon's" signature in the bottom left. This is a wonderful album. I tried to pick a song to highlight but really the whole thing is wonderful. Worht listening to again and again.

Reagon was an extraordinary scholar, musician and activist. It is worth learning more about her life and impact. Unsurprising I have included several links to websites and videos below. I had the great fortune to meet her after Sweet Honey in the Rock performed when I was in college. I bought their latest CD and was getting it signed by the singers. They had just performed and now they were signing the CDs. It made sense to me that they were tired and were not up for small talk. However, Reagon was so sweet to me as I rambled on about how much their work meant to me. My young 20 year old self shared with her that I told everyone about Sweet Honey and how amazing they were. She was so gracious and said “that’s how it keeps going, we keep sharing it with each other. Thank you." That is not verbatim but it was the general sense of what she said. She didn’t have to say any of it, but she did.

The Bernice Johnson Reagon Collection of the African American Sacred Music Tradition at the National Museum of American History documents the music, and the society, history, and customs from which it emerged. She wrote two seminal works on “the transformative power and instruction of traditional African American music and cultural history” - Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions and Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery.

I am grateful for her gifts and wisdom and that she spent her life sharing them with the world is a model for perseverance. I don’t think it is coincidence that I can’t shake the song out of my mind. I find solace and purpose in the words.

We who believe in freedom can not rest until it comes.

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Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon - read, listen and watch:

Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon 1942 - 2024

It’s Time to Recognize Sweet Honey in the Rock for their Essential Contributions to American Music

Guide to the Bernice Johnson Reagon Collection Of The African American Sacred Music Tradition, circa 1822 - 1994

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Legacy Project - Bernice Johnson Reagon

The History Makers, The Digital Repository for the Black Experience - Bernice Johnson Reagon

Oral-History Interview - Ella Baker - Regarding SCLC (Mostly)
September 4, 1974

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Not a great recording but you get the drift.

1. Ella’s Song

Lyrics and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon, Sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

Until the killing of black men, black mothers' sons

Is as important as the killing of white men, white mothers' sons

That which touches me most is that I had a chance to work with people

Passing on to others that which was passed on to me

To me young people come first, they have the courage where we fail

And if I can but shed some light as they carry us through the gale

The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on

Is when the reins are in the hands of the young, who dare to run against the storm

Not needing to clutch for power, not needing the light just to shine on me

I need to be one in the number as we stand against tyranny

Struggling myself don't mean a whole lot, I've come to realize

That teaching others to stand up and fight is the only way my struggle survives

I'm a woman who speaks in a voice and I must be heard

At times I can be quite difficult, I'll bow to no man's word

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes