Bernice Johnson Reagon delicately began singing at the Kellogg Center on Thursday, then stopped suddenly.

"You know, I'm not supposed to sing this by myself," she said to the audience of about 50 people.

With gathering strength, the crowd joined in on the freedom song, some singing loudly while others gently hummed.

They escalated into singing a song about courage in the face of adversity.

Reagon, an original member of the famed "Freedom Singers," renowned scholar, singer and founder of the "Sweet Honey in the Rock" a cappella ensemble, was the first of four professors to speak in the third annual Visiting Minority Faculty Lecture Series, sponsored by the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The series, themed "Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey," was created as a part of a special university fund for visiting minority faculty.

Reagon talked about the unbroken faith of slaves and sticking out in a crowd, while singing songs of freedom, strength and power.

As she began the program with the song "Sweet Honey on Me," she told a story about her pastor speaking of the importance of remembering history.

"If I remember what has come before me, if I actually acknowledge that I exist because of the running and stumbling and dying before me