Memorial Day weekend is filled with remembering and honoring the lives of fallen soldiers and this weekend, one particular moment in history was commemorated.

Per North Carolina Public Radio station WUNC 91.5, a historical marker in Chapel Hill was unveiled this past weekend to remember the African American men of B-1 U.S. Navy Band, who officially integrated the U.S. Navy during World War II.

The band members, who were all trained musicians, made history by enlisting at general rank (instead of as cooks and porters) in 1942, breaking the Navy's racial barriers by doing so. Between 1942 and 1944, the B-1 U.S. Navy Band marched and performed from Franklin Street to campus (almost two miles each way), where white cadets assembled for the raising of the colors.

Two of the last four living members, Calvin Morrow and Simeon Holloway, were serenaded with professional trumpet renditions of Amazing Grace and Taps, a known military bugle call band members played daily on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.

Much of the 44 member, all-black Navy band was made up of players from North Carolina A&T University, Dudley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina Central University and Hillside High School in Durham.

“Being black, being always put down, we had been treated as human beings, that’s something to think about," said 93-year-old Morrow, who played the French horn.

Despite the progress, the campus definitely had a long way to go in terms of racial relations. "At the end of the morning when they were done with their work, practicing and playing for the cadets to change classes, they had to march back to the Hargraves Center to eat lunch because the university wouldn't let them eat at their facilities there, or stay there," said historian Alex Albright, author of the book, Forgotten First B-1 U.S. Navy Band.

According to Albright, the musicians became widely respected, especially by African American residents who watched them daily, except on Sundays, when they didn't march. The B-1 U.S. Navy Band members were later deployed to Pearl Harbor and performed in the U.S. and abroad to help ease racial tensions between black and white sailors.

“It’s an honor, an honor to be living, to be remembered and the turnout, to be here, it’s just an honor," said 96-year-old Holloway, who played the baritone saxophone and the clarinet in the band.

These band members are certainly an important staple in history and I'm glad they have a tangible source of honor!

Chapel Hill

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