Civil Rights leader and Freedom Singer Bernice Johnson Reagon.

Reagon, Dean Smith, and Roy Williams to Receive Honorary Degrees at May 15 Ceremony.

Staff Reports

UNC Asheville Chancellor Anne Ponder will confer honorary degrees on noted Civil Rights leader and Freedom Singer Bernice Johnson Reagon and legendary UNC Chapel Hill coaches Dean Smith and Roy Williams at the university’s spring commencement. The ceremony will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 15, on the university’s quad. Reagon will give the commencement address to some 500 graduates.

A native of Georgia, Reagon became involved in the Civil Rights movement as a college student. She was an original member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee Freedom Singers and a founding member of the Harambee Singers. While a graduate student at Howard University, she served as vocal director of the D.C. Black Repertory Theatre and formed the internationally renowned African American women’s a capella ensemble, Sweet Honey In The Rock. She led the group until retirement in early 2004. Currently, she is a popular speaker at venues across the nation, performing in her unique song-talk style.

Professor emeritus of history at American University, Reagon also served as curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and as the 2002-04 Cosby Chair of Fine Arts at Spelman College. However, music remained a constant for Reagon. She acted as music consultant, composer, and performer for several film and video projects, including the award-winning Eyes on the Prize, the Emmy-winning We Shall Overcome, and the feature film Beloved. She wrote the seminal text on the subject of African American sacred music and has been featured on numerous solo and group recordings with Sweet Honey In The Rock.

Tar Heel Coaches Dean Smith (left) and Roy Willliams (right) are legends of college basketball.

Tar Heel coaches Smith and Williams are legends of college basketball. Smith is best known for his tenure in men’s basketball from 1961 until his retirement in 1997. While at North Carolina, Smith helped promote desegregation by recruiting the university’s first African American scholarship basketball player, Charlie Scott, and working for equal treatment for African Americans by local businesses. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983, two years after his induction into the North Carolina Hall of Fame.

Asheville native Williams has won the Associated Press Coach of the Year award twice. In his career at the University of Kansas and at UNC-Chapel Hill, Williams has taken his teams to seven Final Fours and led the Tar Heels to two NCAA National Championships. In 2007, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

For more information about commencement, call UNC Asheville’s Office of the Provost at (828) 251-6470 or click on www.unca.edu/commencement.

NOTE: The North Asheville Tailgate Market, held on campus on Saturday mornings, will be moved to the nearby parking lot of Covenant Presbyterian Church on Edgewood Rd. during Commencement. It will return to campus on May 22.