Whence the Music?

By Michael Bromka

Carlsbad has offered unique hospitality for 30 years to Donnell Hill, Music Director of the local MLK, Jr. Scholarship Fund’s annual banquet and church service. Born in Conroe, TX, and having lived since boyhood in Amarillo, TX, Donnell is grateful for the local generosity, warmth, and sponsorship of Dr. King’s dream to ensure ethnic equity and to praise God.

Donnell’s father, David Hill, Sr., a Baptist minister, moved his family of 10 to Amarillo in the late 1950s when his musical son was about five years old, the third eldest of eight siblings. Living in the modest parsonage, Donnell was fascinated with an old piano there. The decrepit yet beloved instrument was missing 30 of its 88 keys. Nevertheless, musically unschooled young Donnell could noodle out church tunes with remarkable alacrity.

At first, his parents were merely amused. Thereafter, they affirmed his evident talent by paying for weekly lessons—his first thrill of touching all 88 keys intact. The lad thrived.

By age 10, Donnell could accompany singers in church. At school, he played drums and xylophone and, of course, sang solo, which he’d been doing since he was a toddler. Clearly, this devout Christian young man would pursue a career in music. By age 16, Donnell was the Music Director of New Hope Baptist Church.

Upon graduating, he enrolled at West Texas University to earn his bachelor’s in music education. Donnell taught music—and also math—in two public schools for the ensuing 30 years.

He also continued graduate studies at his alma mater (now renamed West Texas A&M) to attain his master’s in educational administration, earning that degree in his 40s.

It’s worth glancing back at his family’s history and genealogy. His forebears in recent generations hailed from New Waverly, TX. To ascertain their more distant provenance, we must track resettlement by southern plantation owners. William Phillips Fisher moved from North Carolina to Wilcox County, AL, by 1818, thence to what would become Lowndes County, AL, where his son Horatio White Fisher was born in 1827. By 1852, Horatio moved to Walker County, TX, with 72 enslaved laborers, as recorded in the decennial census.

Neither given names nor surnames of enslaved people were recorded in Texas. So, after June 19, 1865, Texan African Americans who knew each other’s given names acquired surnames as well. Perhaps “Hill” had a locational origin. Given the spiritual dedication of descendants, a lofty name was apt.

Donnell lived out his first decade in the era of Jim Crow. African Americans now constitute 7% of Amarillo’s population. Civil rights and equitable voting rights weren’t publicly discussed until Dr. King and our first President from Texas, Lyndon Johnson, pushed through federal legislation supporting those freedoms for Black people. But the attainment of rights isn’t guaranteed.

Since most school kids find music and singing joyful, Donnell motivated his students to master their classes with him. Although he was a stringent taskmaster, kids loved him. Some colleagues envied his success.

One afternoon in the late 1990s, Donnell was in their school principal’s office with a younger teacher. The two other men were white, and perhaps the principal recognized a version of himself in the younger teacher. He offered advice, and here’s what Donnell heard:

“You’re doing great in the classroom, already quite capable. But look to your future. Go back to night school and get your master’s in administration. Then you can hire on as assistant principal, with the bump up in salary.”

“But sir, Donnell’s had his master’s for a decade. He hasn’t yet gotten an assistant principal job.”

“Oh, but we’ll get you one.”

Laws exist, but there’s the sticky issue of implementation. Savvy, skillful, sensitive, diplomatic, tall Donnell never got promoted into administration.

Now retired, he does music at two churches on Sundays plus Saturdays with Seventh Day Adventists. He’s in frequent demand to play keyboard and sing at funerals in the city and surrounding region, as well in Amarillo, where Donnell founded—and for 30 years has directed—the Gospel songfest “Christmas in the ‘Hood.”

It’s been a life of praise to God, who gave him music, talent to praise, and the drive to make the most of life, as others would allow. With career—even in Amarillo—he surpassed the attainment of forebears (as they would’ve wished).

And ever in recent decades, Donnell is most grateful for the respect he’s been shown in Carlsbad.