The documented story
The program achieved national exposition and radio visibility. Breaux also founded the Black State Band Festival in 1937 with seven participating bands; participation later grew to eighteen.
People and leadership
Breaux founded and directed the program during its formative era and retired in 1948.
Community and organization
The band was a public-school ensemble at segregated Douglass High School. Its development belongs within the history of Black education and institution-building under legal segregation.
Reading the evidence
The verified 1923–1948 Breaux era should not be stretched into an unverified uninterrupted director or ensemble chronology to the present.
Questions for further research
The later director succession and post-1948 program history are valuable future additions but do not block the foundational Breaux-era account.
Dated evidence in this record
- 1923
Zelia Breaux organized the band with 26 participants in 1923.
- 1927
The National Register nomination reports that the Douglass High School Band was featured at the opening of the Oklahoma State Fair in 1927.
- 1931
The National Register nomination reports that a 43-musician Douglass High School Band was featured at the Sixth District Middle Western Association of Elks meeting in Denver in 1931.
- 1933 – 1936
Performed at Chicago World’s Fair festivities and on national radio in 1933; Texas Centennial appearance in 1936.
- 1935-08
The National Register nomination states that the Douglass High School Band marched at the Chicago World’s Fair in August 1935 and had become nationally known by that point.