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Prairie View A&M honors 1940s all-female jazz band
03/28/2002
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas - When World War II whisked away the men from Prairie View A&M University, it was left to the women to keep the jazz flowing from what once was the school's all-male dance band.
On Wednesday, the historically black school honored the "Prairie View Co-Eds" for blazing a path and bringing recognition to the school during a time when it was the only public college in Texas blacks could attend.
"We showed that women could play jazz and give good performances," said Margaret Grigsby, who went on to become a doctor. "We set out to do what we could with the war effort by playing in place of the men."
The call went out on campus in 1943 that the school needed women for the band. Those who had applied previously were denied because playing music wasn't something a lady should be engaged in, according to a book called Swing Shift, which features the Co-Eds.
Some who tried out for the band had never played an instrument.
But before long, 16 female students, mostly from small segregated Texas towns, began defying society, which then typically relegated black women to menial jobs. And in doing so, they earned money playing for servicemen throughout the South and audiences at venues like Harlem's famous Apollo Theatre.
Helen Cole, among about a dozen former band members who showed up Wednesday, said the money she earned playing the drums allowed her to attend college. She eventually left Prairie View to form her own quartet.
Prairie View A&M Founder's Day celebration was the first time in more than half a century that Ms. Cole had seen some of her musical colleagues.
"We have been reminiscing about it," Ms. Cole said. "We played a lot of places."
Ms. Cole said when the women would arrive, always wearing ornate dresses, they would get the same response Bob Hope got at military bases. The women admit it could have had a little something to do with their gender, but they say it was based mostly on their talent.
"They were the hippest thing," said Sherrie Tucker, a professor of American Studies at the University of Kansas and author of Swing Shift.
"The white press didn't really know about them, but in the black press they were celebrated," she said. "They also were a source of pride for black audiences."
Ms. Tucker said what the women did, considering race relations at the time and women's roles, was nothing short of amazing.
All-female bands like the one at Prairie View "were sites of struggle over race, class, gender and Americanness," she said.
"The Prairie View Co-Eds countered all sorts of images of what it meant to be black and female in the United States," Ms. Tucker said. "The typical image of women in jazz is this image of the tragic vocalist. The Prairie View Co-Eds had a totally different image."
Ms. Tucker said the women projected an image of young, up-and-coming, educated females, which assisted black women in their struggle from menial labor and one of the lowest rungs on the societal ladder. It was a time when all women were showing they could take on men's roles, she said.
"At the end of the war, all of that was taken away," she said.
The war complete, the band reverted to an all-male group.
Until then, the women from Prairie View A&M traveled the South and used the opportunity before them, even if it meant harassment while on the road, bypassing restaurants and gas stations designated for whites and searching for hotels or rooming houses along the way that were black-owned, Ms. Tucker said.
"I understand the suffering and inconvenience you endured, but you endured it without complaint and carried the message of Prairie View through music," University president Charles Hines told the women who returned for Wednesday's celebration.
"There is no better example of overcoming the odds then our Co-Eds," he told students who attended the event after describing some of the racism they endured on the road.
The women saw their travels as exciting. Some said they don't remember experiencing much racism at the time. Ms. Tucker said many have just put the painful memories out of their minds as the years have gone by.
"They felt what they were doing was important," Ms. Tucker said. "Many of them wanted to be professional musicians."
Ms. Cole said her love of music remains with her today, even if she can't move to it or play it like she used to.
Fannie Drisdale Burt, 77, feels similar. She was one of the band's original members.
"At that time there was no women's lib," Ms. Burt said. "That is something that came to task later. We weren't trying to be trailblazers. It's just something that happened."
