It’s a story about desegregation, the lingering consequences of old decisions, and who pays the price for unity. He wants to march in history - a story of community identity and loss so profound that decades later, some are still asking if what was taken can be returned. It’s not just his trumpet that Young wants to march into the auditorium. But today, very few Black students play instruments in the band. It was the pride of Black and white students alike they participated in equal numbers. The marching band used to reflect the school’s majority Black population and the surrounding neighborhoods. “Anything else you want to practice?” Norman asks. In 1980, he had to exaggerate his movements so the whole band could see the crowd’s cheers drowned out his whistle. Samuel blows his whistle and holds up his baton, or “Cadillac,” to call the band to a stop. Cafeteria staff stop in the doorway to listen. Their knees don’t lift as high as they once did.īut eyes are twinkling, hips start swinging and by the time drum major Rodney Samuel signals the drumline to break it down, the magic is back: the joy and swag that used to pack Gainesville into the bleachers every Friday night. They stumble a bit through their first runs of the funk classic “Rags to Rufus” and the school’s fight song - “Ram Jam,” penned by Eastside’s first band director Richard Parker. The 17 alumni span two decades of Eastside graduating classes. They don’t make up a full marching band but they sketch the outline of one: a smattering of brass and woodwind instruments, three drummers, a majorette, two color guard members and a drum major. Instrument cases clack open and C notes start to swell. “All right y’all, right quick, let’s go over ‘Rags!’” calls out Cathy Norman, Class of ‘83 and the alumni band’s founder. The alumni band performs in a style the school dropped decades ago, with strong ties to Black culture. He doesn’t know how the current students, who are packing into the auditorium for the school’s Black History Month celebration this February afternoon, will receive them. Young’s foot begins to jiggle against the floor. Their laughs echo off the tables and old nicknames roll off their tongues. Parker Alumni Band” stretching around a green ram on their shirt fronts. The people trickling in are decked out in orange, “Richard E. The school, Eastside, is surrounded by the historically Black neighborhoods of east Gainesville. He remembers both the pain and the pride in its history. Young was there when the school was founded. "Changed,” Alonzo Young says, surveying the cafeteria of the high school he graduated from in 1973.
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