Alabama A&M recently had the opportunity to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and talk show host Sherri Shepherd shouted them out on her syndicated talk show! Shepherd was at the parade with her family and saw the performance first-hand and spoke about it in a segment on her show.
“ One thing I want to do is I want to make a big clarification because yesterday I talked about going to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with my family and I mentioned there was a band that came through first and I was so proud of them when they were walking. through and my nieces and nephews were like bright eyed and they were looking at them. And this was, and I kept saying Alabama, Alabama. And I said they were from Alabama University, but I got that wrong. They are from the iconic HBCU, Alabama A&M University.”
She then gave a brief history of Alabama A&M and the history of the band program.
“This is an institution that has been around for almost 150 years. And not only, not only that…their marching band, Maroon and White Band’s appearance at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was historic because this was the first time an HBCU band led the parade. I know this. You don’t know all of this stuff when you’re freezing at the Thanksgiving Day Parade with hand warmers.”
Many viewers of her show who attended HBCUs were quick to correct her when she called the institution Alabama University on the previous edition of the show. She appreciated the positivity from the HBCU faithful in correcting her in her error.
“But I have to tell you, so many people came on our social media. , Facebook, YouTube, the, the Instagram, and they called me out on it, but everybody was so loving. Everybody was so respectful in asking me to correct the ban. Not one person cussed me out. Not one and I’m telling you, I’m used to an abusive relationship with the internet.
Sherri Shepherd continued, “You know Cause people be screaming at you and you like, so I’m used to like that kind of stuff. But people said things like, hey auntie, respectfully, can you, we love you. But one person even says, Sherry, it’s pronounced the Alabama A&M University, marching maroon and white. And we thank you for your support.”
Alabama A&M University’s Maroon & White marching band performed at the 2023 Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving Day. They were the only HBCU band represented this year and their performance was seen by 28.5 million viewers.
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