Family of FAMU drum major calls for culture change after son's death

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By Ernie Suggs

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The family of the Florida A&M University drum major who died Nov. 19 after a band performance is calling for change in the culture they say killed their son.

Channel 2 Action News Robert Champion 26, was found unresponsive on a bus parked outside an Orlando hotel on Nov. 19 after the school's football team lost to rival Bethune-Cookman.

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Two days before the funeral of Robert Champion Jr., his mother, father and younger sister, flanked by their attorney, said the "foolishness" of hazing was the cause of their son's death and they want the school as well as all others involved to be held accountable.

"We want to call attention to a culture that cost a life," said the family's attorney, Christopher Chestnut. He called it, "a culture of cover-up. ... Hazing has been covered up at FAMU for generations. Robert loved music and ultimately, music and FAMU's band took his life."

Chestnut said the family intends to file a civil lawsuit in Florida. He did not disclose any monetary figure.

"Hazing needs to stop. We need to put it out there and let people know," Pam Champion, Robert's mother, said. "No one wants to be standing in my shoes. He was supposed to come home for Thanksgiving. We were supposed to watch the parade."

Instead, on a cold, rainy Monday, Pam and Robert Champion Sr. were making arrangements to bury their son.

Flipping through a stack of old photographs, they confirmed that Champion was found unresponsive in the back of a parked band bus in Orlando after FAMU's football team lost the Florida Classic to arch rival Bethune-Cookman University.

He was pronounced dead after being taken to a nearby hospital.

"The last time I talked to him was the Thursday before the game," said Robert Champion Sr., his voice growing weaker. "When your only son has to come back home like he came home ... He was not robbing anybody. He was going to school to make his life better. He was trying to do good in life."

Local authorities and FAMU officials have said Champion was hazed, but officials have yet to release an official cause of death. No arrests have been made in the case.

Calls to FAMU were not returned Monday, but the school has launched a full investigation and last Wednesday fired long-time band director Julian White, accusing him of doing little to curb hazing.

"When I heard about it, I went from being hurt to angry," said Marielle Thomas, a long-time friend who marched with Champion while they both attended Southwest DeKalb High School. "He died at the hands of something he loved more than anything. That was his joy. To think that he was part of an organization that he loved and it cost him his life didn't make any sense to me. They robbed the world of an amazing talent."

Chestnut said everything about Champion's death "points to hazing," adding that he has seen considerable evidence about prior FAMU incidents. Two legal cases involving hazing by FAMU band members were settled in the last 12 years and at least 30 band members were suspended earlier this semester for hazing-related infractions.

Pam Champion said her son never complained about being hazed during his five years in the band. He entered college a year after he graduated from Southwest DeKalb High School and, according to his parents, worked throughout his college career, occasionally taking a semester off.

At 26, Champion was one of the older members of the band and, as a drum major of one of the most famous marching bands in the country, was also one of the most respected. Why a drum major would be subjected to hazing treatment usually reserved for underclassmen remains unclear.

Though Chestnut said hazing was pervasive in the band's "culture," the attorney said Champion never participated in hazing.

Pam Champion said her son fell in love with music at an early age, following what became a family tradition. She said during the holidays, the family would typically get up early to attend or watch parades on television.

He picked up his first clarinet in the fifth grade and made a promise that he would be the youngest drum major in the history of Southwest DeKalb. He was named drum major of the after his sophomore year.

"When I first heard that my son was dead, I couldn't believe it," Pam Champion said. "I thought it was some kind of mean joke. He was scheduled to be home Wednesday. And it is still distant. Because he was away from home, I keep thinking to myself, maybe it was the wrong kid."

Champion's funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at Beulah Missionary Baptist Church in Decatur. A viewing will be held from noon until 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Willie A. Watkins Special Events Center, 5843 Redan Road, Lithonia, with a wake running from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m.