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This is FRESH AIR.
I'm David B.
And Cooley.
Ain't gonna let nobody know that.
Turn me round, turn me round, turn me around ain't gonna let nobody load it.
That's the Freedom Singers, a vocal quartet that grew out of the civil rights movement and provided inspiration for fellow protesters as they faced police, arrest or jail.
We're going to remember Bernice Johnson Reagan, a founding member of the group.
She died last month at the age of 81.
The Freedom Singers was affiliated with SNCC, the student nonviolent coordinating committee.
Reagan's experience in jail formed a powerful connection for her between political protest and song.
Bernice Johnson Reagan went on to become a leading scholar of protest songs.
She directed the black american culture program at the Smithsonian Institution, where she produced a record series called voices from the civil rights movement.
In 1973, she founded the women's a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock.
Later, she produced and hosted the Peabody award winning NPR series Wade in the Water, african american sacred music traditions.
She was named a MacArthur fellow in 1989.
Terry Gross spoke with her before that in 1988.