August 10, 2025
Tougaloo College entered into an agreement with Jacktown All Star Band to create the first band in the history of the 155-year-old private HBCU.
On Aug. 5, Mississippi’s Tougaloo College entered into an agreement with Jacktown All Star Band to create the first band in the history of the 155-year-old private, historically Black liberal arts college.
As Dr. Latoya Haymer, Tougaloo College’s Transformation Resource Officer, told WLBT, “We are not just adding music to the campus –we are expanding the heartbeat of this institution. I am incredibly proud to be part of this momentous step forward to our students and community.”
Likewise, Jonathan Garland, the founder and band director of the Jacktown All-Star Band (JAB), echoed Dr. Haymer’s comments.
“This is bigger than music — this is about legacy, leadership, and giving students something to be proud of for generations to come,” Garland told the outlet.
The partnership between the JAB and the university arrived after months of conversations, planning, and extended discussions about the alignment of values between the school and the JAB, this also culminated in the establishment of JAB scholarships, which offer members of the band a path to education at the university.
Unlike many other HBCUs, Tougaloo College does not have a football program, which is commonly associated with marching bands.
Therefore, the band is expected to give the university an additional avenue to build tradition, identity, and school spirit, as well as pride in the university and the potential to create more exposure for a university that is more well-known for its legacy of contributions to civil rights and as the alma mater of Rep. Bennie Thompson.
According to Visit Jackson, the university has its roots in the story of the Amistad Rebellion, an uprising aboard the ship of the same name wherein captive Africans aboard the ship killed some of their captors and took over the vessel.
The high-profile case related to the rebellion, which saw John Quincy Adams argue on behalf of the rights of those captured Africans to defend themselves from being made slaves, was eventually sent to the Supreme Court, where Senior Justice Joseph Story authored the Court’s decision in favor of the Africans who rebelled.
That history of resistance undoubtedly shaped the atmosphere of the university, as Nsombi Lambright-Haynes, an alumnus of the university and the Executive Director of One Voice, a nonprofit organization, told Visit Jackson.
“The history of Tougaloo College definitely shaped my career path and who I am as a person today. We were definitely fed with all of the history of the Civil Rights Movement regardless of what our major was. We had to attend chapel services and classes about the civil rights movement. Different speakers came in, such as Cornell West, Stokely Carmichael, and Nikki Giovanni. I mean, these people came to our campus on an annual basis while I was a student here,” Lambright-Haynes said.
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