Quote

Well, the first time I ran into the term religion, people were asking whether you had any. You know, some people had religion and some people didn't have religion

Bernice Johnson Reagon

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Bernice Johnson Reagon
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: October 4
Composer
Historian
Singer
Dougherty County
Georgia
Bernice J. Reagon
Wells
Firsts
Well
Ran
First
Asking
Time
Term
People
Whether
Religion
Didn

More quotes by Bernice Johnson Reagon

Image
If I had been at a University I don't think I would have been able to have the experience I had in my Smithsonian work. I don't think I have been as successful
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
Today whenever women gather together it is not necessarily nurturing. It is coalition building. And if you feel the strain, you may be doing some good work.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
I just don't think one person has that much to contribute to any subject
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
I think the Civil Rights Movement changed that trajectory for me. The first thing I did was leave school. I was suspended for my participation in Movement demonstrations in my hometown, December, 1961
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
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
Image
And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
It makes sense that whatever the topic is, it's more compelling if you can provide the audience with a range of perspectives, and you can cross disciplines. And you don't have to control what people take out of it.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
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
Image
If every moment is sacred and if you are amazed and in awe most of the time when you find yourself breathing and not crazy, then you are in a state of constant thankfulness, worship and humility.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
If, in moving through your life, you find yourself lost, go back to the last place where you knew who you were, and what you were doing, and start from there.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
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
Image
I organized Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1973. The music was sanity and balance.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
Image
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