In fact when Sweet Honey was ten years old it was too big for me to run, and I knew it, but I ran it for another thirteen years because I couldn't convince other people to really do it. And this year, I'm not running it. Bernice Johnson Reagon More Quotes by Bernice Johnson Reagon More Quotes From Bernice Johnson Reagon I came out of the Civil Rights Movement, and I had a different kind of focus than most people who have just the academic background as their primary training experience Bernice Johnson Reagon focus rights people I just don't think one person has that much to contribute to any subject Bernice Johnson Reagon subjects persons thinking I went to a church where you could not sing out loud in the service until you had been saved Bernice Johnson Reagon loud saved church I organized Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1973. The music was sanity and balance. Bernice Johnson Reagon rocks balance sweet The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, actually, was an effort to put something on the mall in Washington so American tourists could walk through America, and in their minds everything on the mall would be American Bernice Johnson Reagon effort mind america What would you be like if you had white hair and had not given up your principles? It might be wise as you deal with coalition efforts to think about the possibilities of going for fifty years. Bernice Johnson Reagon wise hair thinking Personally I discovered that you could go through the academy as a young scholar, come out, and almost immediately have an impact on the academic environment. Bernice Johnson Reagon impact environment academic Most people come out of their Ph.D. experience trying to prove themselves, trying to get ahead, trying to get published. You're scared everybody else is going to do your research and get your topic. Bernice Johnson Reagon research trying people I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song. Bernice Johnson Reagon song people thinking The first job I had with the Smithsonian was as a field researcher among African American communities in Southwest Louisiana and Arkansas for the festival. Bernice Johnson Reagon african-american community jobs Welcome to prekindergarten! You will not die if you discover that there are more lines out there than just your own. In fact, you'll discover that you will have an advantage if you know more of them! Bernice Johnson Reagon lines justice facts I started graduate school in 1971, I started working at the Smithsonian in the festival in 1972. I went full-time at the Smithsonian in 1974. And I got my doctorate in 1975. Bernice Johnson Reagon graduates festivals school At the same time all this was happening, there was a folk song revival movement goingon, so the commercial music industry was actually changed by the Civil Rights Movement. Bernice Johnson Reagon commercial-music rights song One of the biggest things I understood in a program like that was that it allowed more young African American scholars to do field research in the Caribbean and in Africa than had ever happened before in the history of the country and since. Bernice Johnson Reagon africa research country history
