A Narrative History of African American Marching Band: Toward A Historicultural Understanding

The purpose of this study is to construct a concise historical narrative of the development and characteristics of African American styles of marching band. While some extant research studies have been published in this area of study, the focus has been primarily on individual exemplary teachers or university band programs. In this article, much of the available published and unpublished scholarly work was reviewed for synthesis into narrative form. Unique style characteristics of African American marching bands are identified and tied to historical developments. The author proposes that African American styles of marching band be examined as an art form through the lens of historicultural research.