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 REAGONI 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.
More Bernice Johnson Reagon Quotes
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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
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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.
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If you’re in a coalition and you’re comfortable, you know it’s not a broad enough coalition.
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The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else.
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If we dwell in a community that is comfortable, then it’s probably not broad enough a coalition.
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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.
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Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs.
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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.
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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
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I just don’t think one person has that much to contribute to any subject
BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON