St. Thomas Native Dale Thomas shines the spotlight on the Florida A&M University (FAMU) band and instrumental music programs. His pictorial collection honors the 130-year history of the Historically Black University. Thomas worked for a decade on the 236-page book, researching and compiling the photos and captions and ultimately designing the cover of “Bands on The Hill: A Pictorial History of Florida A&M University” released by his company Harmonie Publications.
FAMU’s bands are featured in rare photographs of events that are significant to the history of the marching, jazz, and symphonic bands that date back to the late 1800s.
Thomas said writing was never in his plans. “Actually, I like history. I had American History in high school and I fell in love. As the years rolled on, I became a student of history. African American history – arts – culture – anything dealing with history was my focus.”
Thomas inherited his family’s musical genes on his father’s side of the family, he said. It was on St. Thomas where he was picked for the band in the sixth grade and began taking formal music lessons. It was his aunt, Georgia Francis, who took him to the Community Band when he played in middle school. He was a member of the Charlotte Amalie High School Band; Aunt Georgia was the band director and influenced his musical training. He continued with music through college, playing the tuba, the baritone, and the flute.
Music education was his undergraduate degree from FAMU in 1986, and he worked as a music librarian at his alma mater. “With encouragement from the ladies in the libraries where I worked, I pursued a master’s degree in information studies and a second Master’s in Educational Administration and Leadership, both from Florida State University.”
“After so many years of teaching, I thought I would go into administration and become a principal, but it never happened.” Thomas taught as a band director in Oklahoma and taught for 16 years in Florida public schools. When he retired from teaching, he worked as a media specialist at FAMU [a fancy word for librarian, Thomas chuckled] for all the other years, he said.
When Thomas worked at FAMU, it was in the African American history collection area. There, he was exposed to historical documents from the Black Archives. That was the beginning of his research on the band program and the music department, he said.
Thomas published two pictorial books – one in 1996 and the other in 2010. “A Band in Every School: Portraits of Historically Black Schools in Florida” will be the second edition following the 2010 book. It contains a historical account of the Florida Association of Band Directors and additional photographs of high school bands that were organized during segregation, Thomas said.
His next book, to be released shortly, tells the story of the Florida A&M campus going back to the late 1800s. Also a pictorial, the photos visually narrate what the buildings looked like in the past up to the present day with short biographical sketches of the people the structures are named for.
Thomas’ passion for history is revealed in each of his books. He sees the importance of capturing that history, he said. “I fine-tooth-comb my research with the preservation of a lot of the history that I want to get out to those people who are interested.”
Thomas is digitizing his whole reel-to-reel film of the band programs at FAMU and has placed it on YouTube. The older ones from 1952 are in great condition, he said.
Thomas works as a college adviser at Tallahassee State College. He has lived in Tallahassee for over 40 years, and although the warm weather keeps him there, he misses the Virgin Islands, the sugar apples, kallaloo, and all the flavors of the Caribbean.
For more information:
harmoniepublications.com
books.google.com (Search “Bands on the Hill” by Dale Thomas)
