GRANDVIEW, Mo. — Three girls are making history at Grandview High School by simply existing.
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Marissa Presley, Mariah Presley and Halo Nunn are all drum majors in the school’s marching band. This is their first year serving as drum majors, and it’s also the first time that all three of the band’s drum majors have been Black women.
“It’s like, an indescribable feeling,” said Halo Nunn, one of the drum majors. “It’s not really something I can describe with words.”
All three girls are juniors at Grandview High School and were a part of marching band prior to auditioning to be drum majors this year. Two of the girls — Marissa and Mariah — are twin sisters. But all three of them have been close since middle school.
Leading the band together only strengthened that bond.
“We all work really well together, and we all have different perspectives on how we see stuff, and we have different ideas,” said Mariah Presley, one of the drum majors.
Something they didn’t expect was how many life lessons these roles would teach them.
“I honestly feel really good, and it just helps me grow,” said Marissa Presley, one of the drum majors. “Not only as like a leader, but as a person and gaining confidence.”
Race and gender aside, they say confidence is key for roles like theirs.
“We’re over the whole band, so all grade levels,” said Mariah Presley, one of the drum majors.
But confidence also plays a role because they know how they may be perceived.
“When you see us marching onto the field, you know, first thing people see is our color,” Nunn said. “Forget gender. Three Black people first.”
Instead of letting these attributes hinder their success, they’ve done the complete opposite.
"It’s really empowering to me to know I’m in that position," Mariah Presley said. "You see a drum major, they’re usually not Black. They’re usually not females either."
Since they have been drum majors this year, they have won two outstanding drum major awards for the school from two separate competitions — another first for the marching band at least in the past two decades.
“The 24 years that I’ve been here at Grandview, we’ve never had the drum majors get that type of award before that I can remember, so we’re pretty proud of them,” said Charles Jakes, director of bands at Grandview High School.
As the band director, Jakes has had the chance to see the attributes that the girls have brought to the table since stepping into their roles.
“Each of them just have just tremendous personalities, and I could see leadership qualities in each of them,” he said.
Among those qualities includes a willingness to serve, Jakes says.
“They are the types to go to students who are struggling when we’re learning how to march,” Jakes said. “And they’re right next to them and encouraging them and showing them how it’s done.”
As far as representation goes, the girls say it matters. That’s why they hope to inspire more young Black girls to go for what they want.
“There’s always gonna be people who are like, ‘no, you can’t do this’….don’t listen to them,” Marissa Presley said. “You know what you want, and if you listen to your heart, you can do it.”
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