Bernice Johnson Reagon

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. ”

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. ”

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

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. ”

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. ”

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. ”

So one of the things that happened with integration in the South is they found that the black teachers were much more educated than the white teachers. ”

I went to a church where you could not sing out loud in the service until you had been saved. ”

But I'm a historian. I wasn't interested in just being a producer, I was interested in doing research and presenting that research to a general public. ”

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. ”