A Virgin Islands son has been honored posthumously in a ceremony at the world’s largest museum and research complex, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Alton Adams Sr., musician, composer, educator, first African-American U.S. Navy Bandmaster, was recognized in a presentation at the Smithsonian Baird Auditorium in November as part of a program of "Navy Pioneers: A History of African-Americans in the Navy Music Program."
Adams’ contributions to American music will have a permanent home when he takes his place in an exhibition at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, due to open in 2015. To be built on the National Mall, it will be the Institution’s 19th museum on a five-acre tract adjacent to the Washington Monument. The museum’s exhibitions are now housed at the Gallery at the National Museum of American History.
Adams is part of the musical and educational fabric of the territory. Well known to every Virgin Islander, especially for the "Virgin Islands March," Adams was slow to receive national recognition. He was not only bandmaster and composer, he was a journalist, founder of the V.I. Press Corps, writer for several music periodicals, hotelier, co-founder of the first local hotel association, founder of the local Red Cross, and creator of the first public school music curriculum.
He established an international name for himself through the column he wrote for the prestigious Jacobs’ Band Monthly from 1914 to 1922.
His son, Alton Adams Jr., said his father’s life was guided by his belief in the basic goodness of the people in the community he loved.
At a time when the U. S. Navy closed its doors to first enlistments of African Americans, Adams rose proudly as a musician who believed that education was the path to equality, and music was the voice to affect social change.
Adams’ life, filled with tenacity, talent and a passion for education and equality, was brought to the attention of the Smithsonian Institute U. S. Navy Band archivist and chief musician Michael Bayes.
Alton Adams Jr. said this week, "In his research, Chief Bayes became intrigued with what my father had accomplished as an African-American bandmaster. His own grandfather was a Navy bandmaster in 1920. Chief Bayes became engrossed in my father’s career, with the goal of bringing him the recognition he deserves."
Bayes spoke of Adams’ invaluable contributions in the Smithsonian presentation. With a backdrop of Adams’ composition "Sweet Virgin Isles" and the "V.I. March,” played by a Navy Band ensemble, Bayes said, "With Bandmaster Adams’ entrance into the Navy, a new professionalism toward Navy music began. He felt the time had come that bands should be elevated to a status equal to that of the top orchestras of the day. That sentiment became the impetus to the famed American Bandmaster’ Association."
In fact, Adams co-opted the Navy’s own agenda, Bayes recounted. "He made the military an unwitting collaborator in the Harlem Renaissance. Within six months, the Navy’s token ‘colored band’ would be parading through the streets of Harlem."
In Adams own words, "Above all, the tour had a profound and lasting impact upon the minds and attitudes of African Americans, who saw our accomplishments not only as a vindication of the race, but also an opportunity for better treatment and greater equality."
After the successful tours with his now-renowned band, Adams was proposed for membership in the American Bandmasters Association, but with strong objections from Southern U.S. bandleaders, he was blackballed in 1936.
It took 70 years for Adams to posthumously receive the honor he so richly deserved.
In March 2008, “The Memoirs of Alton Augustus Adams Sr.: First Black Bandmaster of the United States Navy,” was published. Editor Mark Clague called the memoirs "a long-awaited and major publication on Virgin Islands life."
Clague first became aware of the documents while working as an editorial assistant at the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago in 1994, when Adams’ papers were sent to the university for preservation.
That institution, Adams Jr. said, is helping him in preparing material for the 2015 opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture for an exhibition called "Musical Crossroads,” which will explore the history and impact of African-American music, highlighting the central role African-Americans had in defining America’s musical traditions.
He said his father’s legacy is being well-preserved. "I’ve had inquiries from several institutions including the University of South Carolina, which has asked for permission to record his music for distribution nationwide."
