Freedom Facts and Firsts. Jessie Carney Smith

       While Charles rarely made overtly political statements, the tenor and content of his music often conveyed his empathy for the suffering of black America.

      Charles, Ray (1932–2004)

      As one of the most influential American musicians of the twentieth century, Ray Charles possessed a talent that spanned most modern musical genres. By combining elements of jazz, gospel, and R&B, he pioneered a new genre known as soul and thus became known as the “Father of Soul Music.” Born to Bailey and Aretha Robinson in Albany, Georgia, Charles was reared by his mother in an impoverished community of Greensville, Florida. At age five, he began to go blind and was completely blind by age seven. Determined to provide him with the skills to be independent, Charles’s mother sent him to the St. Augustine School for the Blind. There, Charles learned to read and write music in Braille as well as play the piano, clarinet, and saxophone.

      Orphaned at age 15, Charles began his career with country western road bands before touring with R&B bands. By his early twenties, he was a seasoned performer in the tradition of Nat King Cole, but by the 1950s he had departed from traditional ballads. At Atlantic Records, his infusion of diverse musical forms was considered the mark of a genius. Throughout the decade, Charles’s music increasingly appealed to white American youth, despite his refusal to compromise his musical style. While Charles rarely made overtly political statements, the tenor and content of his music often conveyed his empathy for the suffering of black America. In 1961, Charles famously refused to play to a sold-out audience in Memphis, Tennessee, because it was segregated, forcing the desegregation of the concert. The winner of 13 Grammy Awards, including lifetime achievement awards in 1987 and 1994, Charles was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Immortalized in the biographical movie Ray, Charles died of acute liver disease at his Beverly Hills, California, home on June 10, 2004.

      Crystal A. deGregory

      Chuck D. (1960–)

      Carlton Douglas Ridenhour is the given name of the innovative and socially conscious rapper known as Chuck D., who once called rap music “the black CNN.” According to a review of his 1996 solo album, Autobiography of Mistachuck, “no one artist in hip-hop’s history may have ever been simultaneously more well-respected and misunderstood.” Ridenhour was born in Roosevelt, Long Island, New York, and graduated from Roosevelt High School and Adelphi University with a bachelor’s degree in graphic design. He founded Public Enemy in 1982, which achieved critical acclaim as well as commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s with recordings such as “Yo! Bum Rush the Show,” “It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back,” and “Fear of a Black Planet,” which sold over five million copies. Public Enemy helped rap and hip-hop music become a major force in the music industry. With William “Flavor Flav” Drayton, Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin, Norman Lee “DJ Terminator X” Rogers, and DJ Lord, Chuck D. as front man, lyricist, and lead singer, created “Fight the Power,” a song that became an anthem for the hiphop community. Chuck D. also defied the stereotype of rap and hip-hop artists through political activism offstage, including testifying before the U.S. Congress on music technology issues and serving as keynote speaker for the National Hip-Hop Political Convention in June 2004.

      Fletcher F. Moon

      Reagon, Bernice Johnson (1942–)

      Born October 4, 1942, in Albany, Georgia, Bernice Johnson Reagon is the daughter of a Baptist minister. She grew up within the church community, and the church and the black community helped shape young Bernice. Fundamental to this life was the music that accompanied services. Having no piano, performers in her father’s church sang a cappella, using their hands and feet to power the music with physical rhythms. She joined the local Youth Chapter of the NAACP, and by the time she was a senior in high school she was the organization’s secretary. Around the same time, she auditioned for the head of the music department at Albany State College (now University), enrolling to study music in 1959.

      Reagon continued her work with the NAACP and served as secretary while in school. When the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came to Albany, she expanded her political activism by marching, singing, organizing, and whatever else was required. Because of her activities, she was arrested and expelled from Albany State in 1962. She then entered Spelman College in Atlanta, but soon withdrew and returned to work with the SNCC. Cordell Reagon, her future husband, organized the Freedom Singers for the SNCC and she became a member of the group, too. They sang together and traveled for a year while raising funds for the Civil Rights Movement and detailing the actions and issues for rallies and meetings.

      Reagon married in 1963 and took time off for motherhood, but she still managed to be involved in the movement. In 1966 she founded the Harambee Singers, a woman’s a capella group that was a part of the Black Consciousness Movement, and in 1973 she founded Sweet Honey in the Rock, a female a capella quintet. The name comes from the first song they practiced, which was based on a parable and spoke to the strength and sound of its message. The group has recorded albums and participated in various media events, earning international recognition and acclaim for its socially conscious renditions and the artistry of its sound.

      Reagon retired from the group in 2004. She completed her degree at Spelman and earned her doctorate in history at Howard University. She has also served in a creative capacity in film, television, and recordings. Reagon received a MacArthur Genius Award in 1989. She then spent time studying African American sacred song and tradition, produced a 26-hour radio series called Wade in the Water, and worked on two documentaries. Now a curator emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution and professor emeritus at American