We remember activist, singer, songwriter, and scholar Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, who spent her lifetime using the power of music to fight for freedom and justice. As a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) Freedom Singers in 1962, Reagon performed across the country, raising funds for the Civil Rights Movement. In addition to recording several solo albums (some with our Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), she founded the Grammy-nominated all-Black women’s a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1973. As a curator and historian at the Smithsonian, Reagon explored how Black music fueled movements for change. In 1974, she joined the Smithsonian’s Division of Performing Arts, where she was instrumental in establishing the African Diaspora program and recruiting Black artists to participate in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage). Two years later, she founded the Program in Black American Culture at our Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Reagon continued her work as curator emeritus and helped shape our Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture as a member of the museum’s Scholarly Advisory Committee. “Bernice’s fierce intellect was only matched by her fierce sense of justice she applied to the struggle for civil rights,” said Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III. “As a member of the NMAAHC Scholarly Advisory Council, her wisdom was invaluable in creating the intellectual framework of the museum. Her lyrics and music lift my spirits and embody her lifelong work to challenge America to live up to its ideals: ‘We who believe in freedom will not rest until it comes.’” We will miss Dr. Reagon and send our heartfelt condolences to her family and community. 📷 : Photograph by Dane A. Penland, 1981, from our Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (SLA).
Smithsonian Institution
Museums, Historical Sites, and Zoos
Washington, DC 177,024 followers
About us
The Smithsonian Institution is the world's largest museum, education, and research complex. We are a community of learning and an opener of doors. Join us on a voyage of discovery. Legal: https://www.si.edu/termsofuse
- Website
-
https://www.si.edu
External link for Smithsonian Institution
- Industry
- Museums, Historical Sites, and Zoos
- Company size
- 5,001-10,000 employees
- Headquarters
- Washington, DC
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Specialties
- museum, archive, libraries, zoos, research, and education
Locations
-
Primary
Washington, DC, US
-
Employees at Smithsonian Institution
-
Dave Lu
Managing Partner @ Hyphen Capital | Co-founder and President @ Expo | Co-founder of Stand With Asian Americans | Producer of Emmy-winning 38 at the…
-
Diann C. Johnson
Digital Content & Program Management | Photojournalist + Speaker
-
Jon Tyson
Former CEO of ivgStores; Software Architect and Tech Consultant
-
Renée A. Mayo, Esq.
Passionately promoting charitable causes through innovative fundraising, marketing, and event planning. Major Gifts | Planned Giving | Grant Writing…
Updates
-
Happy #WorldEmojiDay from these silly little guys at our Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Scientists at the research center are studying how: 🦥 human activity and environmental factors affect sloth populations by conducting a “sloth census” 🦇the 76 species of bats that live on Barro Colorado Island evolve, adapt, and communicate 🐸 ways that artificial fertilization can help rescue Panama’s endangered frogs from extinction 🦋 the wing pattern development in Heliconius butterflies—the only genus that supplement their nectar diet by feeding on pollen 🐬 boat traffic is threatening the survival of dolphins These photographs are from our Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Explore more about how scientists are researching animal species across the Smithsonian. s.si.edu/4bPtgS7.
-
Happy #CoralReefAwarenessWeek! Learn five facts about these ecosystem builders with our Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. https://s.si.edu/3Lp8u0I
-
True crime fanatics and armchair detectives: this one is for you. Former nurse Lydia Sherman was arrested for murder in 1871...only after all three of her husbands died under suspicious circumstances. This set of arsenic tests performed by Yale professor George Frederick Barker proved that all four of the examined victims—two of her husbands and two children—were poisoned under Sherman’s care. A jury found Sherman, nicknamed the “Derby Poisoner,” guilty, and she was sentenced to life in prison. See these tests and other artifacts that represent various ways in which forensic science has been used in trials over the last 150 years in our Smithsonian National Museum of American History's newest exhibition “Forensic Science on Trial.” s.si.edu/3WpPl52
-
These shades showed support for President Dwight Eisenhower's campaign for re-election in 1952. How does stuff like this end up in our Smithsonian National Museum of American History? An interview with our intrepid curators: https://bit.ly/4f3SvTw
-
Tomorrow, our Smithsonian National Education Summit begins. The nation’s top teachers will be there—will you? Register free and join us virtually: https://lnkd.in/gPyvnnmF
Ready for the start of the 2024 Smithsonian National Education Summit tomorrow, July 16? We highlighted what we’re looking forward to most from the Keynote Sessions and some key takeaways for reflection. We’re excited to welcome Richard Culatta and Missy Testerman to offer online plenary sessions, plus don’t miss Nikkolas Smith and Gitanjali Rao on the Summit stage and livestreamed. Read more here, and join us for this free theee day event honoring and celebrating educators everywhere: https://lnkd.in/ebEt3S6r #SmithsonianEdu
Takeaways for your teaching toolbox from the Smithsonian’s free summer conference - SmartBrief
smartbrief.com
-
New exhibition alert! Our National Portrait Gallery's exhibit about author and activist James Baldwin is now open. Visit "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance" through April 20, 2025. https://s.si.edu/3zOGjpl "James Baldwin," Beauford Delaney (1901–1979) / Pastel on paper, 1963 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
-
This is the team behind our Smithsonian National Education Summit, which starts on Tuesday, July 16. They're working to make the Summit a valuable experience for educators everywhere. Free registration: https://lnkd.in/guYWJppM
-
We're in weekend mode, LinkedIn. Hoping you have a cool one, like the subject of “Girl with Ice Cream Cone” (1963) by Wayne Thiebaud. The artist was well-known for inspiring nostalgia through his paintings of food, especially desserts. Thiebaud’s muse for this piece in our Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden's collection was his wife, filmmaker Betty Jean Thiebaud.
-
Naturalist. Photographer. Botanical illustrator. 🌿 From the time she was young, Mary Vaux Walcott spent her summers climbing mountains and recording the flowering species she saw along the way. On summer trips to the Canadian Rockies with her husband, geologist and Smithsonian Secretary Charles D. Walcott, Mary Vaux Walcott painted hundreds of watercolors of native flowers. In 1925, the Smithsonian published a selection of 400 of those watercolors in a five-volume edition titled “North American Wild Flowers.” 📚: Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery (AA/PG) Library, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives (SLA)