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.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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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.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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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.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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Well, the first time I ran into the term religion, people were asking whether you had any. You know, some people had religion and some people didn't have religion.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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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.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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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.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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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.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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I was at the Smithsonian for twenty years, and I'm still at the Smithsonian as a curator emeritus, and I still plan to figure out what that means for me at this point in my life.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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I learned that if you bring black people together, you bring them together with a song. To this day, I don't understand how people think they can bring anybody together without a song.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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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.
quote by Bernice Johnson Reagon
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