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A great college band, if its musicians survive
Hazing scandal at Florida A & M's band
Maria Thompson Corley
When I heard that that Florida A&M University's Marching 100 band had been suspended, I couldn't believe it. I taught music there for five years beginning in 1994, so I saw at close range how important that ensemble is to the school. Can you think of another college where the Music Department is officially known as the Department of Music and Bands?
Florida A & M is proud of the 100 for a reason. William P. Foster's innovative approach to arranging and choreography changed all bands at historically black universities and beyond.
The experience of witnessing popular songs and dances performed by what is traditionally a rigid ensemble may no longer be a novelty, but it's still exciting. On several occasions I've seen the Marching 100 on halftime shows at the Super Bowl, backing up artists like Prince and Beyoncé.
The film Drumline featured several actors who played in the band while I was there. Apparently, the 100 was recruited to appear in the film, but its musicians declined because the script called for them to lose the battle of the bands at the end. Pride.
Some weren't students
Still, as is the case of other campus organizations that become bigger than the school (yes, I mean Penn State's football team), the Marching 100 had an ugly underside that surfaced repeatedly. At the time of the suspension, the 100 actually consisted of 375 people. When I was at Florida A & M, some of them weren't registered at the school, and others didn't maintain the grade point average necessary to be allowed to march.
These violations were reported and addressed but weren't considered serious enough to sideline the band. It took the recent hazing-related death of drum major Robert Champion to do that.
Hazing has a long and toxic history in many groups. Its presumed purpose is to test the devotion of prospective members. At fraternities on predominantly white colleges, it seems to involve consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.
At black colleges, where fraternity activities were meant to advance the lot of black people— until recently potentially a matter of life or death— physical punishment was considered a way to ensure the kind of loyalty such high stakes demanded. A group was as weak as its weakest link, went the theory. So to avoid being beaten, pledges had to assist each other; everyone passed the tests, or everyone paid the penalty. The aim may have been brotherhood, but the method of discipline owes something to the psychological legacy of slavery.
Beatings and arrests
Somehow, despite the existence of Greek organizations at Florida A & M designed specifically for musicians, the Marching 100 became as much a fraternity/sorority as a performing ensemble. The November 17 Orlando Sentinel reported that Felicia Fabre had received e-mails from her son, a member of the 100, describing beatings and verbal abuse doled out to incoming students, starting with band camp and continuing through the year.
Seven band-related hazing incidents have been reported over the past decade, resulting in three arrests and the dismissal of two dozen members of the band. Former band member Marcus Parker received $1.8 million in 2004 after one of his kidneys shut down temporarily after a beating that occurred three years earlier. Five men were held in that incident. Dr. Julian White, the band director and a faculty member since 1972, apparently tried to stop the abuse without success. (He was recently fired, much like Penn State's long-serving football coach, Joe Paterno.)
A Facebook warning
Young people— and their elders too— submit to hazing because of peer pressure. Like groups ranging from the police to the Catholic Church, the Marching 100 seems to have fostered a culture of protecting the renegades.
"A friend will help you move," notes a post that someone put on my Facebook page the other day; "a best friend will help you move a body."
Florida A & M has already proven itself adept at teaching the intricacies of band choreography. Now who will teach college students a more important trait: moral courage?♦
To read a response, click here.
Florida A & M is proud of the 100 for a reason. William P. Foster's innovative approach to arranging and choreography changed all bands at historically black universities and beyond.
The experience of witnessing popular songs and dances performed by what is traditionally a rigid ensemble may no longer be a novelty, but it's still exciting. On several occasions I've seen the Marching 100 on halftime shows at the Super Bowl, backing up artists like Prince and Beyoncé.
The film Drumline featured several actors who played in the band while I was there. Apparently, the 100 was recruited to appear in the film, but its musicians declined because the script called for them to lose the battle of the bands at the end. Pride.
Some weren't students
Still, as is the case of other campus organizations that become bigger than the school (yes, I mean Penn State's football team), the Marching 100 had an ugly underside that surfaced repeatedly. At the time of the suspension, the 100 actually consisted of 375 people. When I was at Florida A & M, some of them weren't registered at the school, and others didn't maintain the grade point average necessary to be allowed to march.
These violations were reported and addressed but weren't considered serious enough to sideline the band. It took the recent hazing-related death of drum major Robert Champion to do that.
Hazing has a long and toxic history in many groups. Its presumed purpose is to test the devotion of prospective members. At fraternities on predominantly white colleges, it seems to involve consuming excessive amounts of alcohol.
At black colleges, where fraternity activities were meant to advance the lot of black people— until recently potentially a matter of life or death— physical punishment was considered a way to ensure the kind of loyalty such high stakes demanded. A group was as weak as its weakest link, went the theory. So to avoid being beaten, pledges had to assist each other; everyone passed the tests, or everyone paid the penalty. The aim may have been brotherhood, but the method of discipline owes something to the psychological legacy of slavery.
Beatings and arrests
Somehow, despite the existence of Greek organizations at Florida A & M designed specifically for musicians, the Marching 100 became as much a fraternity/sorority as a performing ensemble. The November 17 Orlando Sentinel reported that Felicia Fabre had received e-mails from her son, a member of the 100, describing beatings and verbal abuse doled out to incoming students, starting with band camp and continuing through the year.
Seven band-related hazing incidents have been reported over the past decade, resulting in three arrests and the dismissal of two dozen members of the band. Former band member Marcus Parker received $1.8 million in 2004 after one of his kidneys shut down temporarily after a beating that occurred three years earlier. Five men were held in that incident. Dr. Julian White, the band director and a faculty member since 1972, apparently tried to stop the abuse without success. (He was recently fired, much like Penn State's long-serving football coach, Joe Paterno.)
A Facebook warning
Young people— and their elders too— submit to hazing because of peer pressure. Like groups ranging from the police to the Catholic Church, the Marching 100 seems to have fostered a culture of protecting the renegades.
"A friend will help you move," notes a post that someone put on my Facebook page the other day; "a best friend will help you move a body."
Florida A & M has already proven itself adept at teaching the intricacies of band choreography. Now who will teach college students a more important trait: moral courage?♦
To read a response, click here.
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