 And Dr. Bernice Johnson Regan, civil rights activist, scholar, and musician who started the vocal ensemble Sweet Honey and the Rock and co-founded the Freedom Singers and the Harambee Singers, died Tuesday at the age of 81. In the early 1960s, Bernice Johnson Regan performed with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's musical group Freedom Singers, bringing liberation songs to marches, jails, and organizing meetings.