'The Mountaintop' inspiration: The songs of Bernice Johnson Reagon

Voice of an angel

Art is a form of resistance, a beautiful means of using the power of creation and expression as a mirror to a society steeped in anger and violent racism. When the ugliness of people's hatred manifests itself in screams demanding subjugation, sometimes the most mighty form of defiance one can give is through song.

The esteemed Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon  has spent most of her life using her voice and her talent to speak against the oppression she refused to bow to, from the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960's to today.

These days, I come as ‘songtalker,’ one who balances talk and song in the creation of a live performance conversation with those who gather within the sound of my voice.
As a student leader and activist in the Albany Movement, I sang and stood in the sound of the congregational singing of the freedom songs charging the air we breathed. For the first time, I understood how the singing not only pulled us together, but became our articulate collective testimony to all who stood within the sound.

A founding member of the SNCC Freedom Singers in the Albany Movement, Dr. Reagon used her voice as a clear bell to cut through the very heart of injustice.   Protestors struggling with fierce opposition, mob violence and police brutality would be galvanized by her voice and her words.

James Foreman wrote about Bernice: "I remember seeing you lift your beautiful black head, stand squarely on your feet, your lips trembling as the melodious words 'Over my head, I see freedom in the air' came forth with an urgency and a pain that brought out a sense of intense renewal and commitment of liberation. And when the call came to protest the jailings, you were up front. You led the line. Your feet hit the dirty pavement with a sureness of direction. You walked proudly onward singing 'this little light of mine, 'and the people echoed, 'shine, shine, shine.'"

May her voice shine eternal.

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