In the early 1960s, she was a founding member of the Freedom Singers, organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Albany Movement for civil rights in Georgia.

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.

The singers realized that singing helped provide an outlet and unifier for protestors struggling with mob behavior and police brutality.

[18] In 1989, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship which helped her to complete the major project, Wade in the Water: African American Sacred Music Traditions (1994).

[19] After Reagon retired from singing with Sweet Honey in the Rock in 1993, she continued to work at the Smithsonian in African American Songs of Protest as a Curator Emerita.

She served as music consultant, producer, composer, and performer on several award-winning film projects, notably PBS television productions such as Eyes on the Prize (1987) (in which she also appeared) and Ken Burns' The Civil War (1990).

Reagon was also featured in a film, We Shall Overcome, which was about the song and its placement in the movement, being produced by Ginger Records and made by Henry Hampton, the creator of Eyes on The Prize.

[22] She was the conceptual producer and narrator of the Peabody Award-winning radio series, Wade in the Water, African American Sacred Music Traditions.

[23] Reagon claimed: "These days, I come as a 'songtalker', one who balances talk and song in the creation of a live performance conversation with those who gather within the sound of my voice.

Reagon stated that her role models in terms of music are Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, and Bessie Jones, because they assisted her understanding of traditional singing and the fight for justice.

Reagon also saw as important to her work Deacon Reardon, a historian studying African-American sacred worship traditions, and she stated that he impacted both her spiritual and musical development.

[25] Reagon's work as a scholar and composer was reflected in her publications on African-American culture and history, including: a collection of essays entitled If You Don't Go, Don't Hinder Me: The African American Sacred Song Tradition (University of Nebraska Press, 2001); We Who Believe In Freedom: Sweet Honey In The Rock: Still on the Journey (Anchor Books, 1993); and We'll Understand It Better By And By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers (Smithsonian Press, 1992).

In addition to Reagon, the women in the original group were: Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Nitanju Bolade Casle, Shirley Childress Johnson, Aisha Kahil, and Carol Maillard.

[30] Her death was confirmed by her daughter, Toshi Reagon,[31] and by Courtland Cox, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's Legacy Project.