A virtual museum of the base doesn’t mention its band, which included Amos Jackson, Melvin J. Phillips, Roger E. Bowers, John L. Robertson, Theodore Hunt, Wilson L. Warren, David S. Spencer, Herman B. Hopkins, Joseph D. Brown. Herbert B. Thompson, Eddie J. Mullins, Horace G. Sneed, Alvin L. Wall, Columbus C. Jones, Burnie L. Peacock, John M. Trafton, Eddie A. Newbie, Charles Johnson, James J. Austin, Arthur M. Williams, Robert G. Fleming, Charles Moore and Earl Warren. 

Joseph D. Brown, who played trombone with Fess Williams and then McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, joined the Navy in Chicago, where he was a member of Local 208 musicians union, the union for African American musicians.  

• • •

Hayes, Bob. “Here and There.” Chicago Defender 29 Aug. 1942: 23.

“Navy Takes over a Tailor Made Band.” Pittsburg Courier. 8 Aug. 1942: 2. 

–Alex Albright
16 August 2023