Marching Crimson Piper Band
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2014 Homecoming “Get It All” -TU fight song
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2014 Homecoming “Ball and Parlay”- TU spirit song
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http://www.tuskegee.edu/student_life/student_organizations/band.aspx
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Tuskegee University’s band is the oldest HBCU marching band.
John Philip Sousa visited Tuskegee on February 15, 1926
Tuskegee Marching Band and Golden Tigers Football – 1937
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Floyd Griffin, Jr.
Floyd Griffin of Milledgeville, Georgia, is 1966 Tuskegee University graduate and former member of the university’s Board of Trustees.
Griffin holds a bachelor’s degree in building construction from Tuskegee and master’s degree in contract and procurement management from Florida Institute of Technology. He also holds an associate’s degree in funeral service from Gupton-Jones College.
Griffin graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College and the National War College, and in 1967, entered the U.S. Army. In Vietnam, he served as a helicopter pilot, instructor pilot, aviation platoon leader and commander of a construction engineer company. After combat service, he commanded an engineer battalion under Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, was later promoted to the rank of colonel, and then served on the Army Staff at the Pentagon.
As an educator, he first served as an assistant professor of military science at Wake Forest University. He later directed the ROTC program at Winston-Salem State University, where as the football program’s backfield coach, the team won two conservative college championships. Griffin also has served as a part-time instructor for the Georgia College and State University’s School of Business.
The honorable Floyd Griffin served as senator of Georgia’s 25th District and was the first African American to represent a majority white district in the Georgia General Assembly. In the Georgia Senate, Griffin was chairman of the Interstate Cooperation Committee and served on the Defense and Veteran’s Affairs, Health and Human Services, Higher Education, Local and State Government Operations, and the powerful Rules Committees. In 1998, Griffin was candidate for lieutenant governor of Georgia. His candidacy for lieutenant governor made him the first African American to run for that office in the 20th century. Griffin was elected as the 67th Mayor of the city of Milledgeville and held the position for the 2002-2006 term.
Griffin is a member of a number of organizations, which include Sigma Pi Phi, the American Legion, Prince Hall of Free and Accepted Masons, Nations War College Association, a life member of the Omega Psi Phi, and 100 Black Men Organization of Milledgeville and Baldwin County. He has served on a number of boards.
On February 27, 2021 the city of Milledgeville and the Baldwin County NAACP held a ceremony to dedicate a street and park to the city’s first African American mayor, Floyd L. Griffin. Floyd L. Griffin Jr. Street replaced McIntosh Street in downtown Milledgeville. A square on the same street was also rededicated in his honor.
Marching Crimson Pipers
FACTS: Tuskegee was the first HBCU to have a marching band
At Tuskegee early bands were military style bands as they were at many colleges across the United States during this era.
Band Directors
Charles A. White 1894–1896
James W. Davis 1896–897
Captain Elbert V. Williams 1905–1907
Major N. Clark Smith 1907–1913
Major N. Clark Smith. Booker T. Washington recruited Smith as Commandant of Cadets at Tuskegee Institute. Smith formed the Tuskegee Cadet Marching Band. Mr Smith was known as “America’s Greatest Colored Band Master”. The band was later led by Frank Dye.
Click image below to enlarge
Captain N. Emerson Perkins 1913–1914
George B. Thornton 1914-1915
Captain Frank L. Drye 1915–1917
William Gary Thomas 1917–1918
J. W. Fentress 1918–1919
Captain Frank L. Drye headed the band again in 1919
In 1931, the school of Music was established under the directorship of William L. Dawson. The band became a component of the newly formed department. In the 1940’s Tuskegee established the School of Music to be the Department of Music, still headed by William L. Dawson.
Ralph Ellison studied music while a student at Tuskegee from 1933 to 1936.
Captain Frank L. Drye held the title of Head, Band Instruments, and Director of Bands.
Gilbert A. Baxter 1943–1944
Dr. William P. Foster 1944–1946 (Director of Bands at Florida A&M University 1946–1998)
Dr. William P. Foster came to Tuskegee Institute, where he continued to build the band. At the half-time of a campus football game between Tuskegee and a visiting team from Florida A&M, Foster’s band caught the attention of Florida A&M president William Gray who was attending the game. That evening, Gray met with Foster and offered him a job.Dr. William P. Foster arrived at Florida A&M campus in 1946.
Alton A. Davenport 1946–1956
Melville C. Bryant 1956-1960
Dr. Lucius R. Wyatt 1960–1963
Dr. Wyatt directed the Crimson Pipers in a new era of progress in musical performance with new marching techniques. In 1963, he presented Dr. William P. Foster, FAMU Director, as guest conductor in the spring concert of the Concert Band. He organized the “Continentals” Jazz Orchestra of 16 members in notable performances. Wyatt left Tuskegee to fulfill a military service obligation in the US Army (1963-1965).
Edward L. Graves 1963–1965 (Director of Bands at Tennessee State University 1979–2011)
Edward L. Graves, has served as Director of Bands and Associate Professor of Music at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee since 1979. Under Prof. Graves’ leadership, the Tennessee State band program has flourished and is appropriately named “The Aristocrat of Bands” for its prominence college band programs and its quality of musicianship.
Dr. Lucius R. Wyatt 1965–1971
Dr. Wyatt returned to Tuskegee in 1965 after service in the US Army. He directed the Crimson Pipers in new uniforms in a highly acclaimed 1969 performance at the Tuskegee-FAMU football game in Tallahassee, Florida. He was voted “Alabama College Band Director of the Year” in 1970. The Tuskeana yearbook was dedicated in his honor in 1970. He directed the Concert Band in annual tours of cities in the Southeast. Wyatt left Tuskegee on a study leave to complete doctoral studies (1971-1973).
Ronald J. Sarjeant 1971–1973
Dr. Lucius R. Wyatt 1973–1974
Dr. Wyatt returned to Tuskegee in 1973 after completing doctoral studies. He resigned in to accept an appointment as Director of the University Symphonic Band at Prairie View A&M University. At Prairie View he served as Chairman, Department of Music and Drama for 14 years and recorded four professional CD recordings as conductor of the Symphonic Band.
Ronald J. Sarjeant 1974–1976
Ronald J. Sarjeant (Director of Bands at South Carolina State University 1976–2004)
For 34 years, “Sarje,” as he is affectionately known, used the lessons he learned as a student under the tutelage of Dr. William P. Foster at Florida A & M University to create a style that would make him a legend. Upon graduation in 1970, Mr. Sarjeant became the Assistant Director of Bands at Tuskegee University and later became Director of Bands. While at Tuskegee, Mr. Sarjeant had the pleasure of serving as band director and mentor to a group of young men who would become some of the most revered entertainers in music.
In 1976, Mr. Sarjeant left Tuskegee to become the Director of Bands at South Carolina State University (SCSU) where he served for 28 years until his retirement in June 2004. The band would grow in size reaching nearly 300 members. Mr. Sarjeant developed the SCSU “Marching 101” Band into one of the top marching band programs in the country. Mr. Sarjeant died on June 22, 2012.
Mr. Warren L. Duncan has been at Tuskegee since 1972, and has been Director of Bands since 1976. Warren L. Duncan, a graduate of Florida A&M University where he earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education in 1971. He received his Master of Education degree from Auburn University in Alabama. As of 2013 Duncan has been at Tuskegee for over 41 years, the last 37 as Director of Bands. He also serves as Head of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts, of which the band is a component. Duncan is married to the former Deidre D. Yates, a 1971 and 1972 Tuskegee alumnus.
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Marching Crimson Pipers alumni return for Homecoming 2014 to thank Mr. Warren L. Duncan for his leadership
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Marching Crimson Pipers alumni entering stadium at Homecoming 2014 to thank Mr. Warren L. Duncan for his leadership
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John Q. Lennard 2014–current
Director of Bands
John Q. Lennard, a native of Tuskegee Institute, Alabama presently serves as Director of Bands at Tuskegee University. Mr. Lennard sought his college education at The Florida A. &M. University, where he earned a B.S.Degree in music education. Lennard is a charter member of the FAMU Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Professional Music Fraternity of America. John Lennard is also a member of the Zeta Phi Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity at Tuskegee University.
After college John served as a high school band director in Homestead, Miami, and Orlando, Florida and Tuskegee, Alabama. He also taught elementary music at the Rio Grande Charter School in Orlando, Florida.
He has performed music across the world in places such as Switzerland, France, Belgium, England, the Netherlands, Jamaica, and the Bahamas. Lennard has also had the distinctive opportunity to perform with or open for great musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, The Ohio Players, Victor Goines, Nat Adderly, Jimmy Heath and the Heath Brothers, The Count Basie Orchestra under the direction of Frank Foster, Brian McKnight, Donnell Jones, Ruben Studdard, The Phat Cat Players, Dr. Dorinda Clark-Cole, Kurt Carr, P.J. Morton, Marvin Sapp, Beverly Crawford, Richard Smallwood, and Byron Cage.
