About the Project

The Flint Public Library (Main, Cody, North Flint and West Flint) is funded through the generous support of the citizens of Flint and serves as a regional information center. It was named one of six winners of the 2004 National Library Service Award, given by the federal government’s Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The award was bestowed March 14, 2005 in Washington D.C. by First Lady of the United States Laura Bush.

“The Flint Public Library exemplifies a keystone community institution. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is honored to include the 150-year-old institution among the 2004 National Library Service Award winners. The Library consistently combines outstanding service with innovative programming and outreach designed to meet the needs of a diverse and changing community.”

-Dr. Robert S. Martin
Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services

A composer, singer, historian, music producer and cultural activist. Her career, stretching more than four decades, began with her participation in the Civil Rights Movement as a college student in her native Albany, Georgia and as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Freedom Singers. Dr. Reagon had received major recognition for her pioneering work in the history and evolution of African American culture including: The MacArthur Fellowship (1989); the Heinz Award for the Arts and Humanities (Heinz Family Foundation, 2003); The Leeway National Award for Women in the Arts, 2000; and the 1995 Presidential Medal for contribution to public understanding of the Humanities. She is Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and Professor of History Emeritus at American University. She recently retired after thirty years performing with Sweet Honey in the Rock, the internationally renowned a cappella ensemble she founded in 1973.

www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com

Under the direction, leadership and inspiration of Mrs. Diane Hardy and Mr. Sidney Oliver, this talented, award-winning group of over 100 children has performed throughout Michigan. Membership consists of Title I students from grades 3-13. Mrs. Hardy has served as choir leader since 1986. She is the heart and soul behind the choir. She challenges the choir members and encourages each to strive for their personal best. Mr. Oliver has served as the Assistant Choir Leader and musician since 1992.

This Flint Community Schools program is an extended day Title I Program enrichment activity. Title I is the largest federally funded program to help disadvantaged children achieve high standards. Teachers, para-professionals, parent facilitators as well as technical support staff help undergird the students in their pursuit of excellence. The choir is also a place of learning for the students and Ms. Jethene Ross, a teacher, serves as the choir’s official tutor. Mr. John Rhymes, former Flint School Principal/Activities Director, and the late Dr. Edward J. Hansberry, former Executive Director of State and Federal Programs, organized the group in the fall of 1983.

Gareth Johnson began studying violin at age ten. Gareth was the winner of the St. Louis Laclede String Quartet Solo Competition, the 2001 winner of the 5th Annual Sphinix Competition, the 2002 winner of the New World Symphony High School Concerto Competition and the 2002 winner of the Lynn University Concerto Compeition. Gareth has performed with the Sphinx Symphony and other musical groups around the United States, including the Boston Pops and the Detroit Symphony.

Antwaun Stanley is a Flint native and a recent graduate of Flint Central High School. In past years, Antwaun was accepted to the Michigan State Vocal Music Assembly (MSVMA) State Honors Choir and has performed at the MSVMA District Solo and Ensemble Festival. He currently attends the University of Michigan School of Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he is a member of the “Dicks and Janes” a cappella ensemble. He is also in the process of recording a solo album.

“The Power of Song: Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round” was an extraordinary project that reaffirmed the Flint Public Library’s vital role of support and civic engagement for the Community of Flint, Michigan. “We Shall Not Be Moved,” “This Little Light of Mine'” and the “Buses Are A Comin'” were a few of the songs that framed the Civil Rights Movement history lesson and provided a message of hope and courage that resonated beyond the April 14, 2005 live performance.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Bernice Johnson Reagon for developing a project that exceeded our imaginations. Special thanks are due to the Ruth Mott Foundation for its generous funding of the project as well as the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for its funding of the CD’s production.

The credit for successfully implementing such a baroque project goes to the tireless work of library staff members, Leslie Acevedo, Brenda Harris and Mercedea Shriver; the Title I Choir directors, Diane Hardy and Sidney Oliver; and the Gamma Delta Kudos and the Kappa Leadership League coach, John Rhymes.

We applaud the gifted and talented young people who participated in “The Power of Song…” for giving their absolute best and for inspiring us all.

-Jo Anne G. Mondowney
Director, Flint Public Library

Music has always been integral to the African American struggle for freedom. The music of the Civil Rights Movement was shaped by those who participated in the rallies; the marches, those who went to jail, those who marched to the courthouse to register to vote; –as they marched they sang. From December 1955 to December 1956, Blacks in Montgomery Alabama chose to walk rather than ride segregated city buses. To sustain and unify the community during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, mass meetings were held. There ere speakers and there was singing. In 1960, when Black students sat in and were beaten at segregated lunch counters across the South, they sang. They sang as they were dragged in the streets. They sang in the paddy wagons and in the jails.

When the buses carrying the Freedom Riders were stopped and burned, when the riders were pushed to the ground and beaten, they sang. When the Freedom Riders were jailed in Mississippi’s Hinds County Jail and Parchment Penitentiary, again and again they sang. During the summer of 1961 when students in Macomb Mississippi were suspended from school for participating in the first voter education project, they marched and as they marched, they sang. In Albany Georgia in 1962, after mass arrests followed the federal ruling that facilities serving commerce across state lines had to be integrated, songs thundered from the massive community-based Movement that was born. In Selma and Birmingham, in Greenwood and Hattiesburg, in Danville and Pine Bluff, and Baton Rouge and Cambridge; in segregated communities across the nation; freedom-loving people came together. Central to their gatherings: mass meetings, rallies, marches, pray-ns, jail-ins, were their freedom songs.

As a scholar, musician, producer and activist, this year long project has been a unique and deeply moving experience. I continue to be awestruck by the visionary reach of the staff at the Flint Public Library in their commitment to serve and support the intellectual health and development of the wider community. A public library forming a partnership with Title I which included a children mass choir in it tutorial programs in a special mission of learning and teaching—challenging yes, breathtaking, absolutely. A very special gift was also present in the participation of two talented young musicians: tenor soloist Antwaun Stanley, Flint high school senior and the gifted young violinist Gareth Johnson. These two artists performed as a part of the evening for the audience and as living models for the young singers of the choir. “The Power of Song: Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round” creates a unique opportunity, that of sharing primary documents, freedom songs from the Civil Rights Movement with the larger community through the voices of its children.

-For the songs and the singing…
Bernice Johnson Reagan