Trivia

A prolific composer, Reagon composed "Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto" which is a protest song criticizing the murders of children in South Africa's Soweto and the United States' position against the presidency of Salvador Allende.

In 1989 she won a MacArthur Foundation Genius Fellowship.

Distinguished Professor of History at American University in Washington, DC, USA.

Mother of Toshi Reagon.

Scholar in residence at Stanford University.

Co-founded The Freedom Singers in 1962 which was part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

In 1966 she founded the Harambee Singers who were associated with the Black Consciousness Movement.

Was the Vocal Director of the Black Repertory Theater at Howard University (where she got her Ph.D. after returning to school following her divorce).

Joined the Smithsonian in 1974, where she worked in the Division of Performing Arts/African Diaspora Project as a Cultural Historian. There, she developed two major projects: Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions, a radio series, and Voices of the Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs, 1960-66. She won the Peabody Award for Wade in the Water.

Singer and activist in the Albany (Georgia) Movement.

In 1993 she wrote the book "We Who Believe in Freedom: Sweet Honey in The Rock, Still on the Journey".

Served as director of Sweet Honey in the Rock from 1973 until 2003.

Daughter of Rev. Jesse Johnson, and Beatice Wise Johnson.

Survived by her two children: Toshi Reagon, Kwan Reagon, her partner, Adisa Douglas, four siblings, Jordan Warren Johnson, Deloris Johnson Spears, Adetokunbo Tosu Tosalsolim, Mamie Johnson Ruth, and one granddaughter.