Central High band gives its all in D.C.

WASHINGTON — After the extra practice sessions, the weekend drills and the seemingly endless marches in the cold, stinging rain, the Little Rock Central High School marching band’s hard work paid off Monday when the group played for President Barack Obama in his inaugural parade.

Marching in cadence down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in their black, gold and white uniforms, the group was made up of teenagers generations removed from the nine black students who integrated the school in 1957.

But the students said they were firmly aware of the school’s place in the nation’s history.

“The school has prestige” because of the heroic actions of the Little Rock Nine, said Brandon Cristal, a senior who plays the alto saxophone. “It makes me feel I have a responsibility as a Central High student” to perform well.

The 88-member marching band and flag line was one of 28 marching bands that marched along the inaugural parade route, which stretched along a 12-blocks on Pennsylvania Avenue near the U.S. Capitol, and passed Obama’s reviewing stand in front of the White House.

The event has special significance, students said, because the second inauguration of the nation’s first black president coincided with the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. - a federal holiday celebrating of the nation’s foremost civil-rights figure.The day had numerical significance, several students said, noting that Monday’s swearing in was the 57th inauguration, and that the Central High School crisis occurred in 1957.

“Every student that attends Central knows the history,” said Silas Price, a junior snare drummer. “You can’t walk through those halls and not know the history.”

But Silas and many other members of the band and flag line had more pressing concerns.

“I’m just trying not to embarrass myself on national TV,” he said.

Price and other students didn’t seem to feel the burden of history. Instead, they were shaking off nerves as the hour to march approached. To calm down, Price said, he does breathing exercises and practices drumming rudiments.

Masatoshi Higuchi, a junior trumpet player put it simply: “I’m nervous.”

For band members, the historic day began before dawn.

In the lobby of a hotel in suburban Virginia where the band stayed, drum majors Maryssa Barron and Gerald Nwosu, both seniors, helped the underclassmen with their uniforms.

Nwosu, standing ram-rod straight in his all-white drum major suit and sporting a head full of dreadlocks, said the marching cadence requested by the White House was different than the one the band practiced all last year. He and Barron are in charge of making sure the band members keep in time and take six steps every five yards.

Those details, Nwosu said, would consume his mind, rather than the historical significance of Central’s participation in the parade.

“We might think about that later,” he said. “While we’re marching, we’ll be thinking about keeping our intervals.”

Jason Davis was one of the first students to convene in the hotel lobby before the parade. At about 6:45 in the morning, he sat at a table eating Fruit Loops, trying to shake off the remnants of sleep.

Davis, an alto sax player and a freshman, said he was excited to play the band’s selection, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“It’s a great song -inspiring and powerful,” he said.

Davis’ mother went to Central, and he knows the school’s place in history. But he said the Little Rock Nine’s courage in integrating the school was “ancient history.”

On Monday, his main concern was getting tired.

Brice Evans, the band’s director, said the “Battle Hymn” was chosen because it symbolized national unity.

The song, popularized as a poem by Julia Ward Howe, set to the music of “John Brown’s Body” is strongly identified with the Union cause during the Civil War. It’s oft-recited first verse tells of Divine justice:

Mine eyes have seen the

glory of the coming

of the Lord

He is trampling out the vintage

where the grapes of

wrath are stored;

He hath loosed the fateful

lightning of His terrible

swift sword,

His truth is marching on.

Throughout the day, Evans gave pep talks, cajoled, herded and rallied the band members as they were shuttled from the hotel to a parking lot at the Pentagon and, eventually, to a staging area at the National Mall in the shadow of the Washington Monument.

He instructed the students not to bring any bags on the bus, and handed out the sparkly golden plumes the instrumentalists placed on their helmets.

Evans, a stout man with a shaved head, gave firm, direct orders.

“Do not take food. Do not take drink,” he boomed as the students loaded onto the bus.

Evans said he found out that the band had made the cut just before Christmas. There were more than 2,000 other applicants who sent in videos and recordings of performances.

Raising the $101,500 necessary to pay for the trip was easy, Evans said. In addition to large donations from the school’s class of 1956 and the National Park Service, the Little Rock School District, several corporations, including Dillard’s (which provided extra-warm gloves), Wal-Mart and Entergy chipped in. Individual donations came from points across the country, including Arizona, Texas and Virginia.

After arriving in Washington early Thursday morning, the band visited several memorials and tourist sites, including the Holocaust Museum, the Vietnam and Korean war memorials and the Martin Luther King Memorial. The band took a cruise on the Potomac River and during a visit to Arlington National Cemetery - where they visited the grave of Jerome Lucker, the grandfather of Central High’s principal, Nancy Rousseau - they spotted Obama driving by in his limo.

The commander-in-chief didn’t stop, but he waved as he passed.

On Monday, the day of the parade, the group arrived at the Pentagon about 8:30 a.m.

They waited in a parking lot with other band buses for more than an hour, and then drove to another parking lot. There, they took their instruments out of their two buses’ cargo holds and brought them to a tent where soldiers opened and searched their horns and drums and had the students walk through a metal detector.

From there, they boarded the buses again and proceeded to another parking lot, waiting a bit longer until they were led by a military escort into Washington. By the time they crossed the Potomac River, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had sworn Obama in. The president’s inaugural address was beamed in fits and starts into the bus’ satellite television system, which had glitches, making it difficult to follow the speech.

Afterward, the bus remained almost silent.

Students like Lydiya Davis, a freshman flag line member, remembered the extra practices the group put in, marching in the freezing rain that stung her face like needles.

Davis’ job, carrying the school banner, is difficult, she said, because it’s heavy. She said she was worried she’d get tired.

“It’s a struggle” being in the flag line, she said. “But after all that work, you can say we made history.”

Bettye Williams, who has worked at Central for 39 years, and sponsored the flag line for the past 13, said the students had practiced a lot, but actually getting their uniforms on and seeing the other bands prepare had suddenly driven home the fact that they were about to perform for the president.

“I think it just hit them this morning,” she said.

Evans had high expectations.

“I want you to bring your A-game. Period,” he said.

After waving through the bus windows at cheering crowds that clogged Independence Avenue, the band got out of the bus, assembled on the mall and marched into a tent where they would wait for more than three hours for their chance to march.

Devonte Johnson readied his trombone and made sure his uniform was on properly.

“I’m really nervous,” the high school junior said.

“We practiced a lot,” he continued.

Johnson paused, took in the scene as bands from across the country got into line and readied themselves.

The next time Johnson spoke, he was a bit more certain: “We got this.”