Newspaper Page Text
October 27, 1980
Black Students
On The March
Pa 8 e ^ The Wolverine Observer
All That Glitter...
In my last article I informed
you about how confused some
of the Band freshmen were dur
ing registration. Now I will tell
you about the trips the Morris
Brown Marching Wolverine
Band takes.
While the football team and
the cheerleaders get to leave one
or two days before the game (so
they won't be so tired) the Band
leaves the night before, or
sometimes the same day. They
arrive the next morning or three
hours before the game. Now you
would think once we got to our
destination we would have a
chance to eat and rest up before
the game, but no, our task has
only begun. Many times after a
long uncomfortable bus ride we
have to change immediately into
ouruniformsandgoperform in a
parade.
For example, take our trip to
Jacksonville, Florida. We left the
night before the game, arrived
there the next morning, got
dressed as soon as we got there,
ate breakfast, performed in a
parade, ate lunch and then on to
the game. We had no time to rest
or relax.
After the game we went to
Morrison’s Cafeteria, where we
had to eat in our uniforms which
were wet and uncomfortable.
After the game we went back to
Edward Waters Junior College,
where we changed clothes at,
and discovered that someone
had broken in the men’sdressing
room and stolen their money
and other belongings. Now this
was about 7:00 p.m. After this
long tiring day we_were ready to
head back to Atlanta, Ga., but
our troubles were not over yet.
Campus Digest Ne* \ Service
Does DOC SEVERINSEN,
JOHNNY CARSON’S musical
sidekick, have a TV show of his own
in the works? He’s reportedly huddl
ing with NBC about a weekly variety
series he would host. When the
strike’s over, of course.
WARREN BEATTY has learned a
lesson from ENGELBERT
HUMPERDINCK. Because of the re-
We had to hang around that
college until 8:00 a.m. the next
morning! Remember, we did not
have any beds, so use your
imagination to where we slept.
Another trip that was very un
comfortable was the trip to
Tuskegee in 1978. We arrived
there two hours before the
game. They fed us, and then we
went to change clothes in a clas
sroom. The game was over about
5:00 p.m. so by 8:00 p.m. we were
ready to go but the bus driver
had to have six to eight hours of
sleep, so we couldn't leave
Tuskegee until between 11:00
p.m. and 1:00 a.m. Now most
people fromMorrisBrown are at
home and looking forward to the
next game while we were still at
the same place the game took
place.
If they would bring two bus
drivers it would not be so bad,
but we have only one and he can
go to sleep at anytime he wants.
If he chooses to go to sleep at
8:00 p.m. just add six to eight
hours on to that, and then that is
when we will be leaving.
Only some of our trips are bad.
One of our better trips waswhen
we went to Frankfort, Kentucky
last year to play Kentucky State.
They had a big vacant dormitory
for the band to stay in plus we
had time to rest before the game.
It was very comfortable.
I have been told the reason the
band can not stay in hotels isthat
we do not have the money. The
band is allowed so much money
each year and that is mostly spent
on the buses.
I do not understand why or
how the choir has money to
travel all over the Northeastern
cent palimony cases in the United
States, Beatty is putting his big
dollars in Swiss banks so that the
ladies can’t get near them.
FLIP WILSON figures that if
presidential politics is show business
then Carter’s campaign is “Hee
Haw,” Reagan’s is “Challenge of the
Network Stars,” and Anderson is “I
Love Lucy.”
part of the United States while
the band can not even afford to
take one decent trip with rest at
the end of the day in a com
fortable hotel or motel. -
The person who balances the
budget must have a grudge
against the band for some reason
because it seems like he gives us
just enough money for the buses
on ly. And sometimes they do not
even give enough for the buses
because we did not even have
the money to go to South
Carolina State last year, and last
year when we played Florida
A&M we had to pay $5.00 out of
our pockets if we wanted to go.
Now they say that five dollars was
for the food, but when we ate at
Morrison’s we had a $3.00 limit.
I think the band works just as
hard as the football team, and
harder than the cheerleaders
and, if they can have a soft place
to lay their heads before and
after a football game, why can’t
the band? We get tired of sleep
ing every place except in beds! I
feel that if they can't send us first
or second class, they should not
send us at all. Remember, we are
humans, too. We’re not
machines or robots.
Many people may say I'm be
ing too negative, but I’m just stat
ing pure facts that have been in
the closet too, too long. I think
people should know what goes
on with the MBC Marching
Wolverines. Maybe someone
can help us.
In my last and final article I will
tell you about the scholarships,
the band boosters and why many
people stay in the band.
By Carol Gibbs
JOHN DAVIDSON worth $7.5
million? Some Jhink not.
Davidson reportedly will receive $l
million the first year, and then his
salary is increased by $250,000 each
year for the next four years.
And who said that talk is cheap?
Obviously not John Davidson.
The Stars
Have It !
WASHINGTON-Many
Washington residents and
tourists looked startled, or at
least quizzical as they stood on
the sidewalk along Pennsylvania
Avenue. They were watching a
unique parade made up of 10,000
college students sending a mes
sage of determination and pride.
“Long live our black colleges,”
they sang.
I saw several broad smiles in
the crowd. They were fascinated
by the multicolored marching
bands and the prancing, shapely
majorettes. But there were other
individuals, including blacks and
whites, who appeared befud
dled. This was especially true of
the older spectators who may
have witnessed other parades by
blacks who were marching in
behalf of integration. One of the
biggest mass rallies ever held in
the national capital occurred in
1963 when the late Dr. Martin
Luther King made his famous
speech in which he spoke of his
dream of an America where
black children and white
children would be marching
together. But on this Monday
noon, 17 years later, here was
another march composed of
young black adults who were
hardly able to walk in 1963.
They were marching as
representatives from most of the
170 black colleges in the United
States. The students were in
Washington as part of the First
Annual National Black College
Day. The event was organized by
Tony Brown, a former Howard
University professor and the
current host of a network
television program.
Does this mean that black
youths of today, unlike their
parents, no longer desire or have
faith in integrated education?
The question also was asked dur
ing the march, "Have the black
separatists taken over the
leadership of today's black
college-age youths?"
I think I have as many creden
tials as any adult to answer those
questions. I was one of the
marchers Monday afternoon. I
marched alongside other men in
their 40s and 50s. And none of us
could be considered a "black
separatist.”
c antpus Digest News Service
Big bands and disco?
Seems like an odd combination at
first glance, but some disco clubs
around the country are mixng the two
and finding that the customers-both
over 35 and under 35-like it.
One of the major problems with big
bands-and the problem that was
mostly responsible for their demise in
the I950’s-was financial. A big band
comes with about 15 musicians in the
band, plus singers. That’s expensive,
which is why small groups became
dominant.
There are still big bands around,
however. Harry James and Woody
Herman are still in action, although
the Herman band of today bears little
And in the conversations I had
with young black student leaders
from throughout the South, I’m
sure it could be said that none of
them is seeking a return to the
era of legalized Jim Crow.
I talked Monday morning with
Dr. Samuel DuBois Cook, the
president of Dillard University in
New Orleans. His opinions were
not unlike those of several other
presidents of black colleges
whom I interviewed at the
parade assembly grounds near
the White House.
But Dr. Cook summed it up
when he said that the demand
for the continuation of black
colleges should not be
interpreted in any sense "to
mean a black concurrence with
racist ideology.”
The truth of the matter is that I
felt more hopeful about the
future of young black America
than I’ve felt in a long time. This
thought came to me as I stood on
the platform at the west entrance
to the Capitol and looked down
on all those beautiful teen-age
faces. The expression on those
faces indicated to me their deep
concern about education.
It was a point of minor interest
at the moment, but the thought
could not excape me that
nowhere did I hear profanity or
did I smell the aroma of mari
juana as I wandered through this
crowd earlier in the morning.
What I did witness was a
throng of young black
Americans seeking to define for
themselves in clear, understan
dable terms what it means to be
black in 1980, what integration
should mean, and how it has
been misinterpreted too long.
Many of the student leaders
whom I spoke with have an
automatic resistance to the idea
that integration should mean the
absorption of all black identity
by some overwhelming white
cultural sponge.
I participated in that march not
as a journalist but as a human be
ing who is an American of
African ancestry and who also
believes that no amount of
integration should mean my loss
of identity.
I think it should be understood
Continued on page 10
resemblance to tne one he fronted in
the I940’s.
Disco, as most club owners will tell
you, has been languishing. So they
have been experimenting with big
bands as an added attraction at clubs
like “Wednesday’s” in New York.
Playing there have been Herman,
Count Basie, the Duke Ellington
band led by son Mercer, and latter-
day copies of the Glenn Miller and
Tommy Dorsey bands.
The results have been increased
business. Some disco groups, by the
way, have done exceedingly well by
adapting some of the famous big
band songs, like “Moonlight
Serenade,” “Take the A Train” and
“In the Mood.”
Personalities...
Disco Takes On The Big Bands