All 1940s Blog Posts
…So this is what I want to know:
When we see Victory’s glow,
Will you still let old Jim Crow
Hold me back?
When all those foreign folks who’ve waited—
Italians, Chinese, Danes—are liberated.
Will I still be ill-fated
Because I’m black?
From Will V-Day Be Me-Day Too, 1944 | Langston Hughes
Lincoln School Majorettes
Lincoln School Majorettes including Jeanne and Liz Logan, Springfield, Missouri, 1954. Lincoln School Majorettes, 1953 Lincoln School Marching Band, 1953 Lincoln School Marching Band, 1949 Lincoln School Marching Band,...
Chinese Moon Festival, 1941
The Chinese Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, featured majorettes marching in the Moon Festival Parade, August 1941. The festival was reportedly held in Hollywood or L.A's Chinatown or both. It was one of the first fundraisers for United China...
W.A. Thomason, North Carolina State Drum Major (1940)
Walter Aldine "W.A." Thomason, was a talented drum major, twirler and tumbler for North Carolina State University. His earliest recorded performance at the University was in 1940. According to Ancestry.com, Thomason was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1920 and...
Armistice Day Parade, 1941
A drum majorette leads an Armistice Day parade in Kentucky, 1941. Armistice Day is an international holiday observed each year on November 11 to commemorate the end of World War I.
Vintage Brown University Band, 1942
Brown University students Robert Hackett (1919-2003), Class of 1941, and Kenneth M. Greene (1920-2021), Class of 1942, pose with guest majorette Betty Brown Lee, 1942. Brown was an Ice Capades star. Photo Source: Brown University Alumni Magazine. Photo published with...
Beverly Fladas, North Dakota Baton Twirler (1949)
Katherine Stump Werntz Kridler (1925-2013)
Katherine Stump Werntz Kridler (1925-2013) and her identical twin sister, Betty, twirled for College High School, Warrensburg, Missouri. They were also majorettes with the Central Missouri State University Drum and Bugle Corps.
Wisconsin Majorette in Treble Clef Costume (1945)
A La Crosse State Teachers College majorette poses in her marching band uniform featuring a treble clef at the shoulder and and hemline decorated with a musical staff, symbols and notes. This costume is very similar to what Mary Hartline wore in 1955, 10 years after...
Dorothy Vinella Humphrey, Drum Majorette (Prairie View College)
Dorothy Vinella Humphrey (1928-2002) was a drum major for Booker T. Washington HS, Dallas, and also Prairie View College, now Prairie View A&M University. Prairie View is a public historically black land-grant university located northwest of Houston. It was...
Louie Jolene “Jo” Hardison, Olton HS Drum Majorette (1940s)
Louie Jolene "Jo" Hardison was a drum majorette for Olton High School, Olton, Texas, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Olton is located south of Amarillo where Hardison was born. She lived in Dallas most of her life and died in McKinney, Texas in 2015, at the age of...
1940s Gallery
This page was designed to feature all 1940s blog posts. For quick viewing of all 1950s baton twirling photographs, click the button below.
1940s Collection
Visit the 1950s collection page to view baton twirling photos from the 1950s, year by year. For example, with one click, you can pick a year, such as 1953, and view all the photographs we have published from that year.
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Photo Epigraph
A Black majorette corps marches in a parade to honor James T. Wiley, Tuskegee Airman, June 1944
PITTSBURGH’S HILL DISTRICT | JUNE 1944
Black majorette corps march in a parade to honor James T. Wiley, Tuskegee Airman. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American military aviators in the U.S. Armed Forces. From 1940-1946, nearly 1,000 were trained at Tuskegee Army Field. The installation was the air training site for Black men and women preparing to fight in World War II. Approximately 445 Tuskegee airmen were deployed overseas and 150 lost their lives. (Photo by Charles “Teenie” Harris.)
Stories from the 1940s
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