Carlton Wright watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2021 as his friends, band directors at Hampton University and the University of Alabama, led their marching bands through the streets of New York City.

At that moment, Wright, the director of bands at Alabama A&M University, pulled out his laptop and started applying for a chance for his band to participate too.

“From there that day I started working on it and it took about a month to six weeks to complete because there were so many entries that I had to make as far as videos, letters of recommendation, photographs of the band…I wanted to make sure that everything was pristine and just really immaculate before I submitted it,” Wright said.

Within a couple of months, Wright got the call that the Maroon and White Band had been accepted to march in the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Wright initially missed the call from Macy’s because he was judging band performances at Opelika High School.

“When I called him back…he said, are you ready to bring your Alabama A&M Maroon and White marching band to New York for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?” Wright recalled. “I was just really beyond excited. And at that point, I couldn’t show my expressions because there were a lot of people around so I just thanked him several times.”

Coverage of the 97th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will officially kick off live on NBC Thursday, Nov. 23 at 8:30 a.m. E.T. Those who miss the parade can also catch an encore of the action at 2 p.m E.T.

Wright graduated from Alabama A&M in 1986 and was a member of the Maroon and White marching band. A native of Montgomery, he attended Montgomery County Schools and graduated from G.W. Carver High School.

After serving as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve, Wright taught at Minor High School in Jefferson County, at his alma mater G.W. Carver and at Fairfield High School before making his way back to Alabama A&M in 2013.

Though Wright says this moment is “huge” for him, his real focus is on what this means for his students and the school.

“It’s a great feeling to be able to have our students experience something like this,” Wright said.

“For our university, this is going to be huge. A lot of people know about Alabama A&M, but worldwide and around the country a lot of people probably don’t know. But that morning, they will know who we are and where we’re from. And hopefully, that will spike an interest in students not only coming to join our band, but also just coming to get a world class education here.”

For nearly two months, Wright had to keep their selection to the parade a secret from his students – only telling university administration, his staff and his family – so that a parade official could tell the band in person.

Ahead of the official’s visit to campus in April 2022, Wright told his band that they were getting a new fine arts center and that the band was to perform at the groundbreaking ceremony.

The band was performing in the middle of campus at what they thought was a groundbreaking when the parade official told them why they were really there.

“And once [the official] made the announcement they were just really elated because they were shocked at first, they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. And once he just stated that hey, you guys are going to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, you know, it was just all tears and everything, it was a lot of excitement,” Wright said.

All 256 members of the Maroon and White band and their 25 chaperones made their journey to New York by bus on Sunday.

They will begin their dress rehearsal at 2 a.m. Thursday to prepare to lead the parade.

Although the band has performed nationally at events like the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, this will be the first time the university band will march during the Macy’s Parade.

They plan to make the most of their time while in New York to ensure students get the full experience, Wright said.

The band members took a boat cruise on the Hudson River on Monday to see the skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. On Tuesday, they took a walking tour to visit Harlem, Central Park and the World Trade Center. The band will also go see “Aladdin” on Broadway.

The band’s dance line and flag line will open for the Radio City Rockettes before their performance.

“Many of them have never been to New York before. This will probably be the first and only time for several of them and we want to just expose them to something outside of Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, wherever they’re from. We want to expose them to different things so that they can one day look back and say, hey, I was a part of something great.”

After the parade, the band will gather for a Thanksgiving meal together at a restaurant in the city – the only item on their agenda that Wright is a bit weary about.

“Now, you know being from the South, cooking is different from the South than it is in the North and I hope they have some Southern cooks up there,” Wright said.