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Argonne Rebels Drum Corps in Birmingham, Ala
June 30, 2003
Roger,
Great little web site on the Rebels:
I was there. It was on a trip to the American Legion Nationals in Miami. Had to be in about 1963 or there about. The buses had stopped at the Birmingham Alabama bus station for supper sometime in the evening. It was dark outside and the corps was spread out along the table booths and along the counter of a well lit, bright, but slightly seedy bus stop.
As our food orders were being taken, I saw two big white guys walk by and look in the window and they seemed to be mad and agitated. I didn't give it much thought. A few minutes later, as I walked out of the bathroom, I saw the same two or three big galoots barging in and headed straight for the Briscoe brothers (Phil and Thurston, and Dink Garner. It all happened pretty fast. Phil, Thurston, and Dink prudently got the hell outa Dodge as fast as they could and the big galoots went around swinging wildly at anyone who came near them. The big galoots kept yelling, "This ain't no Yankee State. This here is Alabama!" They yelled it again and again with a few other phrases that included the "N" word.
I remember John Webb, of the color guard, and his mother (who must have weighed about 100 pounds wringing wet) facing the guys down and kinda keeping them at bay. I gotta hand it to them, John and his mother didn't back down. Glen Opie, very quickly, got in front of these guys and tried to calm them down. I think he said that we'd leave, etc. Several of us, myself included, got shoved around a bit by these guys but no one was hurt except for Phil Briscoe. I think he got hit in the face and was treated at a hospital while we all waited in the bus. I think he caught a good blow on the face. We were all pretty shaken up. We all got on the bus and headed outta town. It was a pretty big deal and made news all over the country from what I heard.
So anyway, bro, it ain't no rumor.
Keep in touch. I enjoyed listening to the sound clips. It brought back alot of memories.
Frosty
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July 6, 2003
Hi Roger:
Another tid-bit. Thurston Briscoe, Phillip Briscoe and Dink Garner were the blacks in on the Birmingham, Alabama race deal. The southern guys came in and started shoving and hitting on Phillip (the older of the two brothers) and John Webb stepped forward and got punched in the nose. I, for some odd reason, jumped up on the counter with a rolled up newspaper, and then jumped over to Dink and Thurston and ran them back out to the very back of the bus and hid out. Several other police came but little was done as charges would have meant going back for hearings, etc.
I'm sure it was a set up with the cafe owner calling on his "buddies" that there were some "nigers" in having a hamburger. It was supposed to be an "un-segregated" bus stop. Glen Opie kept holding up a clipping of the honors that Phillip had earned...yeah, like those southern guys really cared about that....We just loaded up real quick and headed straight to Miami without another stop! Thurston is doing quite well as jazz program director for WBGO, a jazz station in Newark, New Jersey. I have an article from the Wichita State University Alumni magazine about him if you are interested.
Regards,
Joe Boley
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