Second, for the sailors themselves, at duty stations throughout the U.S. First, as a way to help placate Black leaders who for the most part wanted integrated units, the musician rank was deemed an appropriate one at which to make public the Navy’s new policy that took effect on Jto allow Blacks to enlist at ranks higher than messman. The Navy recognized the value of recruiting musicians for two reasons. Simms was one of Bowden’s three assistants the others: Russell Boone, who was charged with training drum majors in band directing and the bands in military ceremony and Jimmy Canada, who was in charge of arrangers. Noble Simms trained more than 100 bands at Great Lakes. Concert and marching bands from Black colleges “contributed to the high musical proficiency” of the Navy musicians, writes Floyd, who numbers them at more than 5,000. Many of those who came through Great Lakes had already had some formal music training and some were professional musicians others were recruited from African-American sailors sent to Camp Smalls at other ratings. Samuel Floyd has called the Great Lakes experience “the greatest single educational and musical experience for Blacks ever to occur in America.” His monograph, The Great Lakes Experience, 1942-45, is the primary document on these bands. Harris was the primary photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier. One of several thousand unknown African-American musicians who served in the Navy during World War II, photographed by Charles “Teenie” Harris at his Pittsburgh studio. Bowden also recruited musicians from other ratings after they arrived at Great Lakes for training.

Most Navy bandsmen were already accomplished musicians, a necessity because the Navy’s School of Music was for whites only. Bowden, a well-known teacher and bandleader who appears also to have been in charge of much of the recruiting for the Navy’s Black bands, it provided an intense learning experience for the musicians who lived there.

Although not officially a Navy School of Music, barracks 1812 at Camp Smalls functioned as one. Camp Smalls was the primary training post for African Americans, who began arriving in large numbers in August 1942 to train for jobs in the many ratings that had opened up to Blacks as the Navy eased its segregationist policies. All but B-1 were trained at Camp Robert Smalls, one of three camps outside of Chicago that were collectively known as Great Lakes. Over 100 of these bands were comprised of African Americans. Navyĭuring World War II, over 6,800 musicians served in the U.S.

Photo courtesy of Michael Bayes, US Navy archivist, and the U.S.

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