The Songs are Free: Bernice Johnson Reagon and African American Music

Produced and Directed by Gail Pellett

Co-writers: Bill Moyers and Gail Pellett

Production Company: Public Affairs Television

Presented by: Thirteen-WNET

Aired on: PBS | Date: 1991

Clip Duration: 5 min...
Archival footage from the early 1960s of communal singing during church meetings, on protest marches, in paddy wagons and in jail. Reagon talks about the significance of communal singing in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Sound is a way to extend the territory you can affect.  Communal singing is a way of announcing you are here and possessing the territory.  When police or the sheriff would enter mass meetings and start taking pictures and names, and we knew our jobs were on the line, and maybe more… inevitably somebody would begin a song.  Soon everyone was singing and we had taken back the air in that space.”  

In this one hour film, Bernice Johnson Reagon, founder of the all women acappella group, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and curator of the Community Life Division of the Smithsonian Institution, discusses with Bill Moyers how black music has shaped the African-American experience and identity.  

Reagon traces the role of early spirituals rooted in the black church to their inspirational use in the early Civil Rights movement. “The songs are free and they have the meaning placed in them by the singers.  It can just as easily be a resistance song as it can be this internal nurturing of the soul.”

Reagon herself began singing in a  small town church in Georgia — congregational singing, whereby somebody in the pews has just as much right to take the lead in a song as the soloist in the choir.  In the 1960’s Reagon became an activist in the Civil Rights Movement and with several others formed the Freedom Singers who took the spirit and message of the Civil Rights Movement to northern universities and cities.  She talks about some of the great women leaders of that movement.  Women like Fannie Lou Hamer— “a fierce warrior” says Reagon.  When she founded Sweet Honey in the Rock in the 1970’s singing everything from spirituals to blues, from gospel to jazz, they also wrote songs honoring heroines like Hamer and Ella Baker.

Fannie Lou Hamer

The film includes live performances, as well as a workshop given by Reagon whereby we see her extraordinary power as an educator and musicologist.  In her interview with Moyers Reagon explains the special significance of the black church and its music in the growth of a powerful African-American culture.

Reagon’s work with Sweet Honey in the Rock continues the tradition of black music as a source of resistance, courage, strength and pride as well as determination and faith.

Breaking News

After thirty years of directing and performing with the group she founded, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Reagon performed with them for the last time in February, 2004. She continues to spread the story of African American song through her speaking engagements around the country.

Witnessing the Power of Song

This program -- which really began as an interview in the Moyers' series World of Ideas -- came about because in scouting for potential voices for World of Ideas, I had attended a reunion of SNCC -- the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee - and had been mesmerized by the special power of Bernice Reagon to bring this fractious group (yes, still fractious 25 years later!) together through song.

At that meeting Reagon also talked about how song was a way to feel powerful and unafraid during the Civil Rights Movement. I knew then that she would make for an extraordinary interview, but I also knew I would need to convince Moyers that we needed to see her teach about this African American song tradition as well. In other words, we'd need to find a budget to go beyond the interview. This award-winning program is the result.

Awards

  • "Emmy" Nomination 1991
  • National Educational Film and Video Festival "Bronze" Award 1991
  • Finalist in Performing Arts, Music; American Film & Video Association 1991

8 Responses to “The Songs are Free: Bernice Johnson Reagon and African American Music”

  1. Loved this video when I viewed it years ago. Would like to purchase it to show at my Neighborhood Association events. Can it be purchased?

  2. I have listened to Jacob’s Ladder countless times and it still touches me so deeply. I would like to share a song with you , an American Spiritual written by an Irishman living in Ireland . This song needs to be performed by a group such as Bernice Johnson’s and this is just not a possibility in Ireland .
    I would be most grateful for your suggestions as to where I might send it .
    Thank you for your time.regards
    Conor Sheehan

  3. Where can I purchase The Songs are Free? I worked with Dr. Reagon and Sweet Honey 1978-1994. Thank you. Amy
    Amy horowitz.Org
    Roadworkcenter.org

  4. Hi Amy,
    I do not distribute the film, because I produced it with Bill Moyers. His company, at that time dalled Public Affairs Television, but now changed to Moyers media…but the film is distributed by Films for Humanities…their email link is on my site where you found this film…Gail Pellett Productions. Let me know that you were successful. I love this film. But I’m prejudiced. Thanks, Gail

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