Editing Bernice Johnson Reagon (section)

==Early life and education==
Bernice Johnson was born in 1942 in [[Dougherty County, Georgia]], United States.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bernice Johnson Reagon, US civil rights activist and singer, dies aged 81 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/18/bernice-johnson-reagon-dead |newspaper=The Guardian |date=18 July 2024}}</ref> She was the daughter of Beatrice Wise Johnson, and Jeese Johnson Sr. a Baptist minister. She was born and raised in southwest Georgia, where church and school were an integrated part of her life, with music heavily intertwined in both of those settings. Reagon was the third oldest kid out of the other 7 siblings, the order of all 8 siblings were: Fannie Johnson, Jordan Johnson, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Mae Frances Johnson, Aaron Johnson, Deloris Johnson, Jesse Johnson Jr, Mamie Johnson. In her family, began school at the age of three when she was asked by her teacher to attend early, and she passed that first year. By the time she was in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, she was requested to tutor students in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and she said it was because there had only been one teacher.<ref name="''Eyes on The Prize'': America's Civil Rights Years (1954–1965)">{{cite web|title=Interview with Bernice Johnson Reagon|url=http://digital.wustl.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eop;cc=eop;rgn=main;view=text;idno=rea0015.0155.086|website=Eyes on The Prize Interviews|publisher=Blackside Inc.|interviewer=Chris Lee|date=1900|access-date=March 7, 2018}}</ref> 

In 1959, she entered Albany State College (since July 1996 called [[Albany State University]]), where she began her study of music. She also became active in the local [[NAACP]] chapter and then the [[SNCC]]. After being expelled from Albany State because of an arrest as an activist, she briefly attended [[Spelman College]].

Later, she returned to Spelman to complete her undergraduate degree in 1970. She received a [[Ford Foundation]] fellowship to do graduate study at [[Howard University]], where she was awarded the Ph.D. degree in 1975.<ref>{{cite web|author=Georgia Humanities Council|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/bernice-johnson-reagon|title=Bernice Johnson Reagon|publisher=New Georgia Encyclopedia|access-date=July 26, 2024}}</ref>