Bernice Johnson Reagon Quotes & Sayings

“Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are.”

“When the culture is strong, you've got this consistency where black people can grow up in these places with this voice just resonating about our special-ness in the universe. And I always say you're in trouble if you get too far away from that core that grounds you.”

“The voice I have now, I got the first time I sang in a movement meeting, after I got out of jail... and I'd never heard it before in my life.”

“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.”

“There is nowhere you can go and only be with people who are like you. Give it up.”

“When I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the Civil Rights Movement.”

“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.”

“I organized Sweet Honey In The Rock in 1973. The music was sanity and balance.”

“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.”

“And I used to think that proof that I had religion was whether I knew how to sing all of the songs.”