John Philip Sousa for Monty Python's Flying Circus), "The Thunderer" and "The Washington Post". Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benkert. His father enlisted him in the United States Marine Band as an apprentice in 1868. After departing the band in 1875, Sousa learned to conduct. From 1880 until his death, he focused exclusively on conducting and the writing of music. He eventually rejoined the Marine Band and served there for 12 years as director. On leaving the Marine Band, Sousa organized his own band. Sousa aided in the development of
John Philip Sousa Junior High School and legal challenge to the district's segregation policies. When the new John Philip Sousa Junior High School opened in September 1950, twelve students, accompanied by parents, lawyers, and a police escort, sought to gain entry to the facility, but were denied by the principal. The ensuing legal action resulted in the landmark 1954 decision in "Bolling v. Sharpe", where the Supreme Court struck down the district's segregation policy on the grounds that it violated due process (in contrast to the more well-known "Brown v. Board of Education", in which state-legislated segregation was struck down on equal protection grounds). John Philip