Florida Association of Band Directors

The Florida Association of Band Directors was an organization dedicated to provide the music schools of predominantly black colleges in Florida, United States, with a feeder system from 1941 until 1966, when the organization merged with the Florida Bandmasters Association.

History

Prior to 1940 and two years thereafter, there were no programs in the public schools of Florida offering instrumental music to the African-American children in those schools. As a result, the schools of higher education had no feeder programs for the development of bands.
In 1941, Leander A. Kirksey and J. Harold Brown called a meeting of several young graduates from the music department of Florida A&M College. George Hill, Alvin Downing, Raymond Sheppard, Michael Rodriguez, and Guy Glover met on April 10–12, 1941 to organize an association whose chief purpose would be to provide feeders for the instrumental program at Florida A&M and other predominantly black colleges in Florida. The association was named the Florida Association of Band Directors.
Its membership grew to more than thirty band directors, teaching several thousand students. It was merged with the FBA in 1966.

Past presidents of the FABD

Leander Kirksey, 1941–1955
George H. Hill, 1955–1960
James W. Wilson, 1960–1966