B-1 BAND [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55]

were segregated in the Navy, and then we were segregated from other black sailors,” Thurman says. Training was supposed to last six weeks, but the band’s facilities in Chapel Hill were still under construction, so the musi- cians stayed in Norfolk a few more weeks. “We had finished training so we could go on liberty every night,” recalls Thurman, “but we performed [at various events] on weekends to get more training.” In August 1942, the band finally re- turned to Chapel Hill, where the band members had been told they would be stationed for the duration of the war. Those who had come from Northern states found it difficult to adjust to the region’s Jim Crow policies. Thurman, who hailed from New Jersey, refused to take public buses rather than be forced to sit in the back.

In Chapel Hill, the B-1 Band had a

variety of responsibilities that were central to the movements of the sail- ors being trained there. Every morn- ing, they played during the raising of colors, as well as when the sailors marched between classes. “They provided the sound track to the trainees’ lives,” says Albright. The band also played at military reviews and other formal military functions, as well as at local war bond rallies. “They were used as community rela- tions, as fundraising vehicles, as an integral part of the military day-to- day experience,” Albright explains.

True ambassadors In May 1944, the Navy broke its promise and transferred the B-1 to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Some band members blamed Parsons for the reassignment and refused to talk to him during the lengthy cross-

country trip. However, it was Cmdr. O.O. Kessing, their former base com- mander in Chapel Hill, who had re- quested the band be reassigned to his command in Hawaii. For many band members, the move was devastating because it meant leaving family and loved ones behind. “To be sent to Pearl Harbor in the middle of World War II was a very frightening thing,” says Albright. “They were so far from home and had no way of communi- cating except censored mail. They were very lonely.” Worse, Hawaii had become a tin-

derbox of racial unrest during the American military buildup following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Thousands of black personnel had been assigned there, as had many racist white Southerners — a volatile mix that resulted in frequent fights and race riots. (Almost always, it was the black participants who were

B-1 Band members perform for three children. 70 MILITARY OFFICER FEBRUARY 2015 PHOTO: NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTION, UNIV. OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL LIBRARY