What musicians did after an executive order on DEI led to the cancellation of U.S. Marine Band collaboration

CBS News

16-03-2025

The United States Marine Band was founded in 1798. Thomas Jefferson gave it its nickname, "The President's Own." Today, 135 Marines still perform the score of the White House from parties to inaugurations. So, there was excitement, last year, when the Marines judged a contest for teenage musicians. The winners would perform with the band. Thirty students were chosen. The concert was scheduled. But, last month, it was cancelled. President Trump had issued his executive order against diversity programs, and the young musicians were Black, Hispanic, Indian and Asian. Because they were silenced, many wanted to hear them including veterans of military bands who gathered in an improvised orchestra of equity that you might call America's own.
This past Sunday, at the music center at Strathmore, near Washington, 22 students who had lost their chance to play tuned up with the military band veterans for the concert that was not meant to be heard.
This music had been planned for the cancelled concert. "Nobles of the Mystic Shrine" by John Philip Sousa. Sousa directed the Marine Band a century and a half ago and composed "Stars and Stripes Forever," the great classic in the songbook of patriots.
Rishab Jain: We're a land that prides itself on being the land of the free, the home of the brave. And I believe that just as much as anyone else does. But for that, we need these different perspectives. We need to see how others think.
18-year-old Rishab Jain was among the students barred from playing with the Marines. He was born in America to Indian parents—a high school senior accepted at Harvard.
Rishab Jain: If we're a society that's suppressing art, we're a society that is afraid of what it might reveal about itself. If we're suppressing music, we're suppressing emotions, we're suppressing expression, we're suppressing vulnerability, we're suppressing the very essence of what makes us human. We are devaluing our own humanity. We are degrading our own humanity.
Scott Pelley: You don't seem to believe in limitations.
Rishab Jain: Absolutely not.
There were no limitations but talent, last year, when Rishab Jain and about 60 others, nationwide, posted auditions for the Marines to judge. Zakyya McClenny uploaded her clarinet from Pennsylvania.
Scott Pelley: Did you think you were gonna be chosen?
Zakyya McClenny: Yes!
Scott Pelley: You have a lot of confidence.
Zakyya McClenny: I do.
Scott Pelley: Why did you think you were gonna be chosen?
Zakyya McClenny: I live my life with a lot of confidence.
She was right. Zakyya was chosen. She and all the contestants had been organized by a Chicago-based nonprofit called Equity Arc, which connects student musicians of color with mentors and opportunities. and here's why — American orchestras today are 80% White, 11% Asian, 5% Hispanic and 2% bBack. No wonder that in 2022, Equity Arc's executive director got an unexpected call.
Scott Pelley: The Marines called you?
Stanford Thompson: Yes.
They called Stanford Thompson to ask how the band could reach out to musicians of color. It's part of the band's mission to educate youth.
Stanford Thompson: So in that phone call with the Marine Band I shared with them a lot of ideas, a lot that we have learned as an organization. And when I got off the phone, it was just-- it was crazy. It was, like, "Wait. Let me call this guy back, because I should be offering a way or some ideas that Equity Arc and the Marine Band could work together." We identified this high school age, this pre-college age where a lot of musicians of color drop off. We came up with the idea of, "Can we bring a select group that we would audition through a competitive process to Washington to be able to spend a couple of days with the band?"
The 'couple of days' were supposed to look like this. Top music students, like Zakaya McClenny, learning from the best.
Their wind symphony was set for this May 4th. Until President Trump's executive order banning programs for diversity.
President Trump: We've ended the tyranny of so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer!
The president says he is building a "color blind, merit based" society --a reaction to what many saw as progressive politics gone too far. His order was comprehensive, calling diversity programs "illegal and immoral discrimination" and an "immense public waste."
But that executive order is just the beginning. All across the government, President Trump is rolling back 60 years of discrimination protections for women, older Americans, the disabled and people of color.
Trump rescinded President Johnson's 1965 ban on employment bias. He closed the Social Security Office of Civil Rights and fired leaders of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which investigates bias in the workplace.
Cari Dominguez: I think we're at a pivotal moment in our society. And we have to make a decision as to which way do we want to go.
Cari Dominguez chaired the EEOC for George W. Bush. Her family fled Cuba when she was 12.
Scott Pelley: The argument behind the executive order is that America has eliminated racism, that no one in this country is held back by race any longer.
Cari Dominguez: The data would not support that.
The data, Dominguez told us, shows that the EEOC handles around 100,000 discrimination claims from Americans each year.
Scott Pelley: The executive order calls the kinds of programs that you used to enforce quote, "immoral."
Cari Dominguez: I believe what is immoral is to deny people opportunities. I have witnessed individuals who have beautiful resumes. And they get an interview. They come in, you know, using a wheelchair, and all of a sudden the opportunity is gone. Denying people opportunities because of that lack of fairness is immor-- that's the immoral part.
Fairness aside, in this email the Marine Band's commanding officer wrote Equity Arc's Stan Thompson, "as long as the executive order is in place, we will not be able to reschedule." "I am really sorry to be the bearer of this news."
Stanford Thompson: My first thought was helplessness in a way and heartbreak.
Scott Pelley: Did you have the sense that the concert was canceled because of the color of your skin?
Rishab Jain: Absolutely. I mean, I couldn't think of another reason really. I had prepared. I had done everything I could to be at the top. And being Indian, I thought, yeah, what other reason would there be?
Playing in harmony, despite the president's DEI executive order
Any questions were answered this past week. The students gathered in Washington for rehearsals and the performance. 60 Minutes did what we often do, covered costs of plane tickets and travel to bring all of our interviewees to one place. Equity Arc decided to book the rehearsal space and the concert hall and try to replace the absent marine band—which turned out to be easy.
John Abbracciamento: I just felt like, well, there's usually two responses to something. You can complain about it, or you could do something about it. I chose the latter within seconds. And it was the easiest decision ever.
Easy for, John Abbracciamento and Jennifer Marotta, retired Marine Band trumpeters.
Scott Pelley: Marines follow orders. They don't have to like them. What do you think the members of the band think of all of this?
John Abbracciamento: I know them like the back of my hand. So, I don't think it's too much for me to go out on a limb to say how disappointed they were.
With the active-duty Marines ordered to stand down, Equity Arc reached out to retirees who answered the call from everywhere, former band members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Westpoint, the Naval Academy and the Marines. Jennifer Marotta flew, on her dime, from LA.
Jennifer Marotta: When I got that email, I looked at my schedule and I said, "I can move all of those things." I booked a flight. It was literally one week ago, and I'm here.
John Abbracciamento: I challenge anyone, literally, anyone to come to me and say by having this concert does damage to the United States. It doesn't. It brings out the best of us.
Scott Pelley: You were not meant to be here today. This ensemble was not meant to be heard. And I wonder what this moment on this stage means to your heart.
Sean Mouzon: My name is Sean Mouzon, I'm here from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm a junior at Southwest DeKalb High School. One thing that units us all, is this, music. I'm here because I love it. No other reason than all these amazing, talented people. And I don't want this to be taken away from anybody because of someone else's personal opinion or just anything else besides why we like to do this.
Vanessa Cabrera: My name is Vanessa Cabrera, I'm from Rockaway, New Jersey. We work hard to be here. We belong here. We have the talent to be here, and this is not just for us but for children and just people in the same situation that we are, that nobody can tell you what to do, if you put your mind to something that you can accomplish that.
Ricardo Lazaro: My name is Ricardo Lazaro. I'm from San Antonio, Texas. I just want the world to be a better place. But it seems like we're slowly straying away from that. And we gotta make a change. And I believe everyone here is capable of doing that. But are we gonna do it?
Julie Angelis Boehler: My name is Julie Angelis Boehler. I retired after 23 years as the timpanist of the U.S. Army Band, Pershing's Own. We need all of this, not just musically. Athletically, academically, we need diversity, equity, and inclusion. Thank you very much.
The original Marine Band concert would have been seen by hundreds. Here, tonight, these musicians are being heard by millions. At the podium, Rodney Dorsey of Florida State University conducting "Gallop" by Dimitri Shostakovich—in the hands of a band that looks like America.
Produced by Nicole Young and Kristin Steve. Broadcast associate, Michelle Karim. Edited by Warren Lustig.
Editor's note: Last month Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, announced it was modifying some of its own DEI policies. The company said the changes were intended to comply with the shift in federal guidelines under the new presidential administration.