American - Musician | October 4, 1942 -
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.
Bernice Johnson Reagon
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The Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, actually, was an effort to put something on the mall in Washington so American tourists could walk through America, and in their minds everything on the mall would be American.
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One of the biggest things I understood in a program like that was that it allowed more young African American scholars to do field research in the Caribbean and in Africa than had ever happened before in the history of the country and since.
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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.
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If I had been at a University I don't think I would have been able to have the experience I had in my Smithsonian work. I don't think I have been as successful.
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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.
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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.
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I started graduate school in 1971, I started working at the Smithsonian in the festival in 1972. I went full-time at the Smithsonian in 1974. And I got my doctorate in 1975.
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When I started graduate school I was interested in the culture of the Civil Rights Movement.
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I just don't think one person has that much to contribute to any subject.
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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.
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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.
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